That Touch of Elegance

By Georgia Otten
Issue # 374 - June 2004

I would ask that each of you sit down now and regress ... one of my favorite pastimes! I would like you to consider times in your life when you wanted to do something really elegant and how the idea of "something elegant" can change over a period of time. I suppose this will be mostly directed at the lady readers but I certainly do not mean to infer that men cannot or do not think of things elegant! Some do, some don't. Generally speaking, most people understand elegance. Glass collectors surely do! Now go back in time a bit ...

You are somewhere in your twenties. You have your first apartment. Your first job is working out well and you have set aside some money for entertaining. Of course your apartment is small, your good table is the old one that you found in your aunt's basement, but it is clean and a nice tablecloth elevates its status to a "dining" table. Your guest will be the person in your life you would like most to impress. You have the dishes and the no-fail family recipe. You need that one touch of elegance to set the mood. The candlesticks! A nice pair of Cambridge No. 3, 10" Victorian candlesticks. Modest, but elegant ... they were Mother's and she was always so proud to use them and so are you. All is ready! No one will escape this evening without a feeling of elegance and importance!

Life has been good. You are now in your thirties. That first apartment and the aunt's table are only memories. You have a house with a real dining area! This calls for an invitation to your favorite couple to share the evening meal with you and that very special person who is still in your life! It even means you will be "dressing for dinner." A definite time to show off the good life you are experiencing. You now have a drop leaf dining room table and of course you have four matching chairs. Perhaps you will use that wonderful damask tablecloth. You don't even mind ironing it. Your china is out and the table is set. The menu is planned in several courses but something is missing. Yes, that touch of elegance ... the candlesticks! The dining area is still small but you have saved some hard-earned money and acquired a most elegant item to dress up your table. You have acquired a Cambridge No. 1358 3 Holder with bobeches and prisms! Oh those prisms ... absolutely dripping with elegance! The evening will simply be too gorgeous!

The twenties and thirties surely went by quickly. You are now in your forties and you still find entertaining in your home a special time for friends. Life has brought you more than expected and your new home boasts not only a large dining room but also you have a great room! So many opportunities. Your new dining room furniture is polished to perfection, four boards have been added to the table and there are eight upholstered chairs in place. The menu has been chosen, the food catered, and it will be served to your guests. All is ready ... oh yes ... don't forget that touch of elegance! Your good fortune has allowed you to acquire many new pieces of Cambridge, for you are now a collector! What will grace your table this evening? How lovely for you and for your guests to enjoy the meal in the twinkling candlelight provided by a pair of No. 17 Cambridge Arms arrangements ... complete with all bobeches and an added peg vases for your choice of flowers! Wouldn't you consider that elegant?

The years go on, life styles become a bit more relaxed. Collecting Cambridge continues. Entertaining becomes a bit more casual. Friends carry in food to be shared by the group or pizza is ordered. You now find yourself in the great room. There is no place to eat at the dining room table for it is covered with recent purchases of Cambridge glass. You have rediscovered the table that belonged to your aunt and now have it in the great room. Your friends have arrived and just before opening that pizza, you remember you would like to continue having that touch of elegance. So you run from the room and bring in your latest acquisition, a pair Cambridge Mount Vernon No. 38 13 1/2" candelabrum in Heatherbloom! It makes no difference that there is no tablecloth or that the sticks are too big for your aunt's table. It's your Cambridge! ... Can't you just picture it? No matter the time, no matter the room, there is always acceptance for that touch of elegance! And the name "Cambridge" is synonymous with elegance!