Mrs. Parvenu and Carafe Etiquette

It was decidedly a Mrs. Parvenu, by the way, who, regarding her carafes in the same category as her wine bottles, placed glass stoppers in them. Decanted water is hardly to be esteemed a delicacy! – Image of modern day water carafe on a table from Petra Carsetti’s and Carlo Cambi’s, “Galatime. È sempre tempo di buone maniere”

Carafes, or water bottles, are rarely, if ever seen nowadays on fashionable private tables. They are relegated to hotels, restaurants, and other public boards. In their places are much seen at dinners low, wide-mouthed pitchers of glass in any of the decorative wares now in  vogue. The effective crackleware and the rich clouded crimson and amber hues are popular, though nothing is in better taste than cut glass in the familiar hob-nail and square-cut designs.

Four pitchers are requisite for a dinner of eight to ten persons, and they are usually sold in sets of this number. Sometimes the pitchers are of very similar shape to the vessels they supersede, and are really shallow decanters with lips. It was decidedly a Mrs. Parvenu, by the way, who, regarding her carafes in the same category as her wine bottles, placed glass stoppers in them. Decanted water is hardly to be esteemed a delicacy! – The New York Times, 1890

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