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.
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