Tableware

To call Bill Stern's Hancock Park apartment a showcase of California pottery would be to radically understate the case: It is a shrine. Stern is a man possessed. In corners and on shelves, in stacks under and on top of tables, in boxes by the bed, in alcoves and nooks, on counter tops and mantels and finally spilling out on the balcony is every imaginable example of the solid-color commercial pottery that revolutionized American tableware in the 1930s and sparked a nationwide design trend.

There is a certain poetry about the knives crafted by Tokifusa Iizuka, one of the most revered smiths in a land that holds hocho--kitchen knives--sacred. His knives are simple and rustic yet, at the same time, elegant. Light dances upon smooth blades and the delicate, wavelike pattern of steel folded many times within. Wedges of black buffalo horn connect the rounded, unvarnished wood handles to the polished blade in a sensuous mix of textures.

It had all the makings of a Broadway hit: Famous star. SRO. Giddy fans. And even though it was just an appearance at Gearys in Beverly Hills, to the admirers of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, it was as satisfying as a one-woman show. This was the last stop of a four-day tour of the country to promote Wedgwood, the English tableware manufacturer.

Sarah Cox never felt that the holidays had really arrived until her mother started using the family's set of Christmas china. "My parents would have a party every Christmas Eve," says Cox, now a 33-year-old attorney in Los Angeles. "My mother would put her Spode Christmas Tree dishes out and, to a little girl, it was a big deal. It was a symbol of something that was especially Christmasy and special."

Entertaining on the Fourth of July has become a grand old American tradition, as patriotic as setting off firecrackers and waving flags. "It's a group holiday," said Debbie Wilson, manager of Dana Party Supplies in Capistrano Beach, which stays open on the Fourth just to sell red, white and blue balloons. "And people are celebrating in a more decorative way. We've seen a real resurgence in the Fourth."

Shig Kariya, 84, a Japanese American businessman who was interned during World War II and later helped co-found the Mikasa Inc. tableware company, died Friday in Silver Spring, Md., of pneumonia. Kariya was born in Japan to parents who had immigrated to California in 1913 but traveled to Japan frequently on business. He lived in the United States from the age of 4 and in 1934 earned a business degree from Los Angeles City College.

The 1930s Art Deco influences china and tableware. The introduction of sleek, streamlined dishes from Fiesta and Russell Wright departs from the elaborate Georgian and Renaissance styles of the 19th century and signals the beginning of modernism. This pottery blends form and function, is easy to maintain and is mass marketed for a country mired in the Depression. Still, it is so avant-garde it won't gain a solid following until the '40s and '50s.

The drape of a royal gown, the plunge of a celebrity neckline, the sheer brass of a dress held together with safety pins. Such is the stuff of fashion headlines. But history may record the artistry of Gianni Versace with a teacup. The fragile china cup, from the Versace Home Signature collection in a pattern called La Mer, is the picture of elegance. Painted with shells and coral, it sits in a turquoise ocean of a saucer. Where the handle would be, a delicate gold wing is poised for flight.

An 11-year-old honor student who packed a knife in her lunch box to cut a piece of chicken has been suspended and arrested on charges of having a weapon at school. "Mom was busy, and Dad had gone to work," Charlotte Kirk said, explaining why she packed the smooth-edged steak knife with her leftover peas, chicken and apple on Oct. 18.