TRY to buy good contemporary cutlery these days and you'll be in for a

shock. If you want reproduction Georgian tableware you'll have no

problem finding cheap, bad imitations (as well as top quality repro).

But if you want good contemporary well-designed place sets you'll have

to shop around.

''Everything we seem to do in Britain is traditional, look at

architecture,'' says David Mellor, Britain's leading cutlery designer.

Mellor's Pride cutlery has beautiful, classic simplicity to it. Designed

40 years ago when he was still a student, it is still produced today and

is one of Sheffield-based Mellor's best sellers.

According to Peter Dormer, author of Design Since 1945 (an excellent

Thames & Hudson guide, priced #6.95), Pride is ''arguably the most

beautiful of post-war British tableware designs''. According to Emma

Black of InHouse, one of Scotland's main outlets for Mellor cutlery,

Pride is still tops on wedding-present lists.

As David Mellor points out, cutlery is something you use two or three

times every day and so it's worth paying a little more for something

that will last a lifetime. ''You have to have something that works well.

The last thing you want is something that looks good but is not

workable. We brought out two new designs last year, Paris and English.

Paris is a sophisticated modern version of a relatively traditional

design.''

When buying cutlery what should you bear in mind? ''Our Paris design

is a luxurious looking thing,'' says Mellor. ''It looks rich and is

particularly nice to hold.'' It's important to feel the cutlery before

you buy and consider how the knife and fork balance in the hand.

Oneida, the world's largest cutlery company, is soon to launch a

coloured-handled canteen called Palette, bringing a touch of class to

the breakfast table and ''casual dining'' (colours are quite sedate:

bottle green, navy blue, black and white). New Verdi is a new cutlery

pattern from Sant' Andrea which puts a modern art-deco spin on

traditional handle shapes.

Other good quality silverware can be found if you look around.

Alessi's Nuovo Milano range bristles with Italian brio. It's an

all-encompassing range with everything from spade-shaped gelati spoon to

dainty pastry fork -- just the thing for tasting la dolce vita.

* Sant' Andrea's New Verdi is available from leading department

stores. Oneida's Palette is launched in April (for stockists call 0895

639 452). David Mellor's cutlery is available from good kitchen shops,

department stores, and InHouse in Wilson Street, Glasgow, and Howe

Street, Edinburgh. InHouse also stocks a host of Alessi silverware

ranges.