By El Clauss
When Henry Francis du Pont designed a dinner table setting, he always began with flowers. Several days before the party, his head gardener, Joseph Feliciani, would bring him cuttings from the garden so he could choose the centerpiece flower. Once that was decided, all other iterations of that flower would be removed from the house so as not to ruin the surprise. For my design, however, the flowers were the last piece I figured out.
When asked to create a setting that had an H. F. design feel, I wanted to connect the display to our Focus On: Ceramics Tour. I also wanted to highlight the different colors in the dining room—green, blue, yellow, and pink. Collaborating with Leslie Grigsby, senior curator of ceramics and glass, I discovered the charming green glass goblets. From there we chose from the wide array of items in the collection with the famille rose–patterned china, which is featured in the Focus on Ceramics tour.
Symmetry and balance were key elements of H. F.’s designs, which I also incorporated. Since he preferred to dine by candlelight, candle holders needed to be included. The two ladles I chose connect the outdoors with the indoors, as H. F. often did. One ladle’s handle features a basket of flowers, to represent the garden; the other shows an image of George Washington, to represent the collection.
H. F. purchased most of the blue linens from Marshal Fry, a prominent New York-based ceramist, teacher, and American impressionist painter, who turned to creating colorful linens for tablescapes in the early 20th century. As Maggie Litz notes in her article “The Politics of Placemats,” “In mid-twentieth-century America, Fry was who you called if you took entertaining seriously.”[1] The blue with dark blue borders set was chosen because it brings out the blue on the ceramics beautifully. Lastly, I worked with our head florist, Heidi Militana, to design the centerpiece, which is bursting with yellow roses and blue hydrangeas.
We hope visitors will agree that we have set a table fit for a du Pont. Come see the display in the Du Pont Dining Room on the Self-Paced House Tour and let us know if we captured H. F.’s penchant for a well-laid table.
[1]Read more about Marshal Fry, his connection to H. F. du Pont, and how he revolutionized table linens in America in “The Politics of Placemats,” The Magazine Antiques, January 3, 2025.