Food and Etiquette in the Gilded Age

“A silver-plate cup on a pivotal base was designed with a spiral hook inside, on which an orange could be twisted and firmly held in place as it was rotated, and then eaten with a special knife and spoon. The objects in the show were selected to illustrate a range of styles from simple to ornate. One interesting thing about the exhibition was that it took an object and then showed how elaborate its presentation might have been. Sterling silver and cut glass were used by the upper class while items in pressed glass and silver-plate were used by the middle-class.”
— Photo source Etiquipedia private library 

A Glimpse of Victorian, Middle-Class Dining

In 1873, “The New Cyclopaedia of Domestic Economy and Practical Housekeeper,” a book “adapted to all classes of society,” recommended that a household's inventory of table linen should include three dozen napkins, two-and-a-half-dozen tablecloths of various sizes, six servants’ tablecloths, three dozen towels, six round towels, two dozen napkins “for fish, vegetables and fruit,” six pudding cloths, two dozen damask “d'oylies” and one dozen Berlin wool “d'oylies.”

The list of household necessities was part of “Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America, 1850 to 1900,” an exhibition that was held at the Hudson River museum in 1988, that offered a view of middle-class dining during the second half of the 19th century.

“By the 1850s, the middle-class was rising in numbers, wealth and power and with that came a whole new birth of people with the ability to entertain and to buy more elaborate things,” said Robert Workman, then the curator of 19th century art at the Hudson River Museum. The exhibition showed the whole process of eating and the kind of objects that were used to point out the elaborateness of the ritual.

The exhibition of more than 200 items covered a variety of themes beginning with the rules of etiquette, its importance to the middle-class and how, in response to these rules, different objects for dining and serving evolved. “The Correct Thing in Good Society” an etiquette book published in Boston in 1888, states for example, that “It is the Correct Thing” to “place miniature, ornamental pepper pots, usually of silver, at the four corners of the table, or at each place. While it is not the Correct Thing to place a plate of bread on the table for dinner.”

“Etiquette was very important to middle-class America as a way of anchoring themselves in middle-class society. They needed codes of behavior to know how to behave in all social situations and etiquette provided a sort of reassuring framework.” according to Susan Williams, then curator of Household Accessories and Tablewares at the Strong Museum.

“The impact of new technologies-such as in food processing, meatpacking, refrigeration and rapid transportation-and their relation to food, menu planning and serving implements was also explored. As more foods became available, their status was often reflected by the utensils designed for their service and display. If you look at the implements, you can make some assumptions about the value people placed on certain types of foods.

A blown and engraved footed glass vase for serving celery for example, and a glass and silverplate sardine box and sterling silver sardine server decorated with fish motives, gives an indication of the regard held for foods now common place, that were once considered rare and unique. “When celery was a high status food, it was displayed high on the table; as it became widely available, it was relegated to low, flat dishes.” Ms. Williams said.

Similarly, a silver-plate cup on a pivotal base was designed with a spiral hook inside, on which an orange could be twisted and firmly held in place as it was rotated, and then eaten with a special knife and spoon. The objects in the show were selected to illustrate a range of styles from simple to ornate. One interesting thing about the exhibition was that it took an object and then showed how elaborate its presentation might have been. Sterling silver and cut glass were used by the upper class while items in pressed glass and silver-plate were used by the middle-class.  — Portions of this are from an article published in the New York Times, April 3, 1988

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia