Place Settings and Butler Stick Etiquette

 Butler Stick

What Have We Here? A 19th Century butler’s measuring stick. — The “24-inch rule” is one of the first rules of formal place settings. These 2 feet refer to the ideal amount of space from the centre of one plate to the cen- tre of the next plate, allowing the place settings to have numerous pieces of flatware and stemware for the dinner, along with plenty of elbow room or body space for each guest. Butlers’ measuring sticks were necessary in the Gilded Age and Edwardian Era, for measuring settings for multi course dinners. Everything had to be aligned properly. The best rulers were those like this, which could fold up very small and fit into the butler’s or footman’s pocket.

A footman in the movie Gosford Park (shown to the left of the setting) using a similar folding measuring stick for setting the long dining table in preparation for a formal dinner.

The flatware for any vertical utensils (the salad fork, dinner fork, knife, and soup spoon, cocktail fork, etc...) should be spaced a half an inch or so away from each other, and the bottoms of each utensil should be aligned with the bottom of the service plate, place plate or charger. The flatware placed horizontally above the plate for dessert can be a bit closer or farther from one another, unless it encroaches on stemware or anything in the center of the table. Note: The soup spoon is upside down in the French fashion of placing spoons and forks upside down on the table. French flatware is monogrammed on the reverse side, whereas American monograms are usually found on the front of flatware handles.

From the new book, “What Have We Here?”: The Etiquette and Essentials of Lives Once Lived, from the Georgian Era through the Gilded Age and Beyond... by Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia Site Editor, Maura Graber