Tablescape

Did David Hicks really invent this?

This past weekend I was invited to join ‘Nantucket by Design’ hosted by the Nantucket Historic Association, whose mission is to articulate the islands inspiring stories and convey their historic significance through scholarships. This years subject was Legacy. My brother gave the key note speech. I was disappointed to miss it because he is bright and clever and very amusing. But I was in Newport speaking at another event, only slipping into Nantucket in time to join the panel discussion.

The highpoint was sitting beside 3 distinguished designers, Wambu Ippolito, Thomas Jayne, and Nicholas Varney. The low point was a beating on the Pickleball court afterwards. What was interesting was both Ashely and I touched on Tablescaping.

My father invented this term or so he claimed. No matter whether he did, or did not, he was the master of it. As long as I can remember, I have lived in rooms, whose surfaces are filled with collections of objects. And as my father illustrated, these can be ancient or barely even antique, or, as in our case, inexpensive mixed with very inexpensive, simply organized by color and characteristic David Hicks precision.

Over my life I have inherited a few bits here and there, for which I am very grateful. My great-grandfather’s giltwood console table, for instance, my grandmother’s pigskin writing case, and the handle of a jade dagger handed down to me by my mother. One of the other things I have inherited is an obsessive desire for collecting, organizing and tablescaping.