{"id":53970,"date":"2012-12-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cover-magazine-com.stackstaging.com\/2012\/12\/23\/musings-on-queen-country-and-table-mats\/"},"modified":"2020-05-20T16:45:45","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T16:45:45","slug":"musings-on-queen-country-and-table-mats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cover-magazine.com\/2012\/12\/23\/musings-on-queen-country-and-table-mats\/","title":{"rendered":"Musings on Queen, Country and table mats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beware the office whip round. A strong arm tactic to collect money for a gift earmarked for a colleague; opt out at peril of your weak limbed grasp of the greasy pole<\/a>. Workers know their drip feed investment into the office equivalent of a Ponzi scheme<\/a> is as as likely to create meaningful long-term yields as it’s likely for senior Ministers of State to gift HRH Queen Elizabeth II with a set of table mats. Except they did. British Cabinet Ministers commemorated the Queen’s December 2012 visit to a Cabinet meeting with a whip round<\/a> for sixty melamine table mats<\/a> fit for a Queen. <\/p>\n

“You can never have too many table mats”<\/em> crowed Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. Thinking the Under Butler<\/a> quickly stuffed the mats into the Royal regifting<\/a> cupboard brands your scribe as decidedly middle class. Why? Because the gift<\/a> was suggested by Buckingham Palace. The Queen’s breakfast table includes Tupperware<\/a>, so melamine mats make for comfy cupboard soulmates. <\/p>\n

In her 1950 book Home Making<\/em><\/a>, Julia Cairns wrote, “The average home and those which rank higher than average have for a considerable time favoured table-mats.” “Chic and moderne<\/em>“, mats revealed the “more modern type of smaller table”. But Cairns was wistful. “I hope the days are not too distant when present home-makers will see to it that the traditional charm of the well-laid table will be as much their personal pride as it was of earlier generations.” <\/p>\n

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Lucie Pritchard hand printed linen table mats create the “future” table charm Julia Cairns hoped for in her 1950 reflections on a well-laid table.<\/p><\/div>\n

The book includes a photo essay on then Princess Elizabeth’s marital residence at Clarence House. No shots of laid tables or TV trays <\/a>in front of a black-and-white telly, but the text does reference “a kindly mushroom shade” fitted carpet and one in a “a deep likeable green”. <\/p>\n

So if One<\/a> (or anyone) must have table mats who does your scribe recommend as the source? British textile designer Lucie Pritchard<\/a>. Adapting hand written vintage postcards as the visuals for her hand printed natural linen table mats, coasters and napkins, they are available from Not on the High Street<\/a> (sold out but re-stock mid-January 2013.) Your scribe concedes Queen and Country are correct. Table mats are de rigueur<\/em><\/a>. Just remember to choose wisely. DJ <\/p>\n

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Lucie Pritchard hand printed linen table mats at Not on the High Street<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beware the office whip round. A strong arm tactic to collect money for a gift earmarked for a colleague; opt out at peril of your weak limbed grasp of the greasy pole. Workers know their drip feed investment into the office equivalent of a Ponzi scheme is as as likely to create meaningful long-term yields […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[523,318,39],"tags":[540,541,542,543,544,545,546,547,548,549,550,551],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cover-magazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53970"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cover-magazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cover-magazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cover-magazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cover-magazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cover-magazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cover-magazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cover-magazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cover-magazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cover-magazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}