Elegance Without Knives and Forks

Despite the lack of utensils as we use them now… “there was an elegance of manners then, as now, regulated quite as much by fashion and by established rules of polite breeding. Frequent washings before, after, and also during a meal preserved a scrupulous cleanliness, and if the fingers were sometimes stained a saffron hue, owing to the nature of the popular condiment…”

It is true that the nobility of old ate with their fingers and in large halls filled with a mixed company, but there was an elegance of manners then, as now, regulated quite as much by fashion and by established rules of polite breeding. Frequent washings before, after, and also during a meal preserved a scrupulous cleanliness, and if the fingers were sometimes stained a saffron hue, owing to the nature of the popular condiment, they were at least free from dirt, for the etiquette of the higher classes demanded the most delicate management in the handling of food and the greatest possible avoidance of soiling the fingers with it. Even the custom of washing was surrounded by that elegance which belonged to all their habits of life. – San Luis Obispo Tribune, 1885

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