Etiquette of the 1908 Bridge Table

No one should venture to entertain at bridge, nor accept a bridge invitation, who cannot play the game more than passably well. Don’t go out into public until you can do more than “play at the game”! It is not enough that the hostess provide only four well-matched players, cards and a score pad and pencil. 

Before the evening or afternoon game starts, there are several things that the thoughtful hostess must attend to before she can be assured of a perfect party. 

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Above– A bridge table luncheon place setting for 1955, complete with ash tray, matches and cigarettes. Cigarettes, ash trays and a lighter or matches, were proper at place settings from the 1940’s and 1950’s, They were likely found at most all card tables in 1908, though the proper place setting manuals and etiquette books did not mention them as “requisites” until the 1940’s. 

How to Cover a Bridge Table

It is said that the etiquette of bridge must be as strictly adhered to as must the very rules themselves, and one of the most important etiquette laws is that the table at which the game is played shall be of correct height and size and in perfect keeping with the furnishings of the room. No longer is the cheap wooden table with its dull felt cover permissible, but, fortunately, an attractive bridge table is an easy matter to make at home, and to have the card table in keeping with the style of room there need be no added expense to be considered.

The newest bridge tables are less than a yard square and made of the lightest pine wood so as to be easily portable. A square yard of material will therefore cover the table completely, and this cover may be either brocade, heavy corded silk, panne velvet, tapestry, chints, or felt of a shade corresponding to the color scheme of the room. For a country house a bright French chintz is attractive, while a good piece of tapestry is smart for a library or den. Brocade for a handsome French period room is most frequently made use of, while panne velvet in soft shades of green, pink, and blue is often used and makes a delightfully soft cover and one that is excellent to play on. The felt is still preferred by numbers of card enthusiasts, but the light colors are now generally preferred, although with a dark background it is unquestionably easier to distinguish the cards one from an other.

To put on the cover is an easy matter. The material is first stretched tightly over the table and then cut so as to leave about an inch beyond what is necessary to turn in to prevent fraying. The brocade, felt, or whatever the material chances to be, is then nailed to the wooden rim with large thumb tacks or brass-headed nails, or, if desired, the material may be drawn down underneath the edge of the table and fastened there with small tacks.

Gilt tables are extremely pretty, and on any white wood the gilt can easily ba painted. Silver is also sometimes used, but unless peculiarly in keeping with the furnishings of the room is not so effective as the gold finish. White enamel paint is most attractive for a morning room, while mahogany varnish is easily applied, if that will look best in the room, Mahogany and marquetry tables can be made up to order, but must not be ex pected to masquerade as antiques, for the modern bridge is quite unlike the card table used when whist flourished in the days of Thackeray and Dickens. Perhaps the most fashionable furniture of the moment is the golden-brown English walnut, and there are bridge tables to be had in this wood just as the design of the Louis XIV., XV., XVI. and the Empire can be copied in the legs of the bridge table if so desired for a room as an example of that special period.– The New York Times, 1908

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Bridge Playing Etiquette

Should she be looking over one’s shoulder at their cards???–When there is but one table of bridge, the hostess almost always plays, but when there are two or more tables, she generally does not include herself in making up her list. Thus she leaves herself free to attend to last-minute details of preparing and serving refreshments and seeing to it that her guests are supplied with cigarettes, ash trays and that the changing of partners goes off without a hitch. 

Etiquette And Courtesy Are Bridge Necessities

THE outstanding social game of the hour seems to be bridge. No matter whether some of us loathe it or not—we all should be able to play it—that is, if we want to be popular. That is why it is important that the up-to-date hostess know how to conduct a bridge party, to be prepared at any and all times with the knowledge and equipment necessary to entertain her friends successfully at bridge. 

No one should venture to entertain at bridge, nor accept a bridge invitation, who cannot play the game more than passably well. Don’t go out into public until you can do more than “play at the game”! It is not enough that the hostess provide only four well-matched players, cards and a score pad and pencil. Before the evening or afternoon game starts, there are several things that the thoughtful hostess must attend to before she can be assured of a perfect party. 

Unless she has a great deal of room at her disposal, it is far better to have a comfortable group of only four players than several crowded, noisy and unhappy tables. When there is but one table of bridge, the hostess almost always plays, but when there are two or more tables, she generally does not include herself in making up her list. Thus she leaves herself free to attend to last-minute details of preparing and serving refreshments and seeing to it that her guests are supplied with cigarettes, ash trays and that the changing of partners goes off without a hitch. 

The hostess also establishes the kind of bridge to be played, the system of changing partners and the method of scoring. The hostess’ first duty toward her guests is to provide proper equipment. This, as everyone knows, consists of a sturdy table of the correct height, four comfortable chairs, two decks of new cards, ash trays, a score pad and sharp pencil. Do be careful, too, that the lighting is good. There is nothing more disturbing than having a room too dim, or to have a light shining directly in some player’s face. 

Much can be said about the etiquette of the bridge player. Most of it can be written in one word ‘CONSIDERATION.’ There is nothing more maddening than the very slow player—or the one who explains all his plays. One should be prompt, pleasant and noiseless —but most of all, courteous. A very famous bridge authority once said, “Not everyone can play a faultless game; but everyone is certainly capable of the highest degree of etiquette and courtesy —and these two things go far toward making up for any lack of skill.”— By Deborah Ames, 1937

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia©️ Etiquette Encyclopedia