Tables Pinto Style
The late, great interior designer Alberto Pinto created a memorable coffee table book six years ago, and we’d like to revisit it: Alberto Pinto: Table Settings, text by Dane McDowell, Rizzoli, New York, 2010. It's filled with essential inspiration for tabletop fans.
Alberto Pinto was a highly respected specialist in photography, interior architecture and design, tabletop, and entertaining. We were not surprised that his generosity of spirit drove his love for entertaining and surrounding his guests with beauty, luxury, and whimsy. He respected guests who smoked, too, providing elegant containers for cigarettes at the place settings.
His trick to making memorable tables was having vast collections of silver, china, stemware, linens, and other decor items on hand at his various residences, including a Paris flat, a summer home overlooking the Mediterranean, and a NYC apartment. Company coming over? Not to worry. Mr. Pinto took an average of 15 minutes to expertly style and dress a table.
He dipped into his well-organized cupboards, pantries, and storage areas (beautifully photographed for the book, and certainly putting everything we've seen about storage to shame) and came up with a glorious juxtaposition of objects which ranged from simple and refined to gloriously festive. He encouraged everyone reading his book to fall in love with flowers, crystal, porcelain, silverware, and interesting collections in general. When you have enough unique objects around to draw into your table fantasies, you'll spark conversations and stimulate the senses.
In the above setting, Pinto started with simple black straw placemats and elegant black-edged napkins then layered his colorful "Renouveau russe" dinner service, aged-silver cups, and antique silverware. The Big Surprise is in the center of the table, with a mossy pool of water lilies. Fresh and punchy.
Old-fashioned glamour ignited many of the Pinto tables in the book, and if you manage to find a used copy on the Internet, you must look for his holiday table because it's a real eye-catcher. It boasts a red ribbon theme of Christmas Day and imperial silver plates from Elkington & Co. (c1881), reproductions of the service used by Catherine the Great. This setting perfectly illustrates the principle that all great table settings begin with a decor and theme, grouping objects so that they tell a story, even when they're a diverse lot. Your table should be its own world, casting a spell of enchantment over your guests.
Even impromptu luncheons can be simple, yet elegant and thoughtfully prepared events (see photo above). Luncheons don't need to be as theatrically dramatic as dinners, of course, but they can be memorable. In the photo above, Pinto uses a simple spread on an elegant tablecloth, watched over by a whimsical bird. There's another lunch setting in the book that's a celebration of yellow and green, begun with the variegated yellow-and-green leaves of a silver-clad centerpiece to the tablecloth, jade green glass dinner service, and fascinating turbaned figure candleholders. Notice the clever faux wood in the service pieces above.
If you like sheer luxury and panache, there is plenty to enjoy in this book. Pinto collected more silver, candles, rock crystal, and rare objects than you'll ever see in a lifetime. But aren't the colorful, humble, handcrafted Turkish earthenware place settings above lovely? Mix and match color on your table. A simple flower arrangement anchors the center of Pinto's clean white tabletop and whimsical silver swans watch over the diners. The colorful swatches of fabric tied around their necks are great touches.
We saved our favorite for last (see photos above and below). It's a symphony in black and white. The painting by Pierre Dmitrenko sets the tone, with the simple branches of the "Vieux Kyoto" service, silver birds by Luiz Ferreira, a whimsical frog and snails, and black and white flowers and berries in the centerpiece. Layered exquisitely, and we’re especially fond of the hunting scenes in the black-and-white Bohemian tumblers. Strong use of flowers, colors, linens, silver, and porcelain can reinforce any theme you'd like to set for your table. Take a page from Alberto Pinto’s legacy of tabletop mastery. He will give you inspiration aplenty to collect, organize, and set up quick and luxe table settings this spring and throughout the year.
Explore Albert Pinto’s design and product legacy further: visit the Invisible Collection and Pinto