Etiquette of Tiffany Hostesses' Show

Etiquipedia’s initial thoughts: This is a strange order of courses for a formal, mid-century dinner. It appears to be a soup course, a fish course, a salad course and then a main course. Typical for the era would have been a soup, fish, a sorbet as palate cleanser, a main course, and then a salad. There are no dessert utensils, but at a formal dinner, these would be brought to the table with or without a finger bowl, but with the dessert plate. — Above is “A Dinner with Antique Silver, by Mrs. Charles Suydam Cutting, for Tiffany Hostesses' Show” 

Mrs. Charles Suydam Cutting has set a table that is a jewel of antique silver. She has used her own table ornaments: cigarette boxes for each place with hunting scenes sculptured in low relief; an Irish potato ring for the center of the table; columnar Irish candlesticks; cups, bowls, and all sorts of objects from the Charles II, Queen Anne, and early Georgian periods. 

She has made an unusual arrangement of pomegranates and grapes, red ampelopsis, and brown cypripedium from her greenhouses for the center decoration. Mrs. Cutting's écru fine linen cloth is embroidered with “Dixiana.” The finely monogrammed napkins are from France. She uses a simple English reproduction sterling flatware pattern, and a very plain stemware pattern. The dinner plates are white, with a subtle gold scratch-line decoration on the scalloped border.

Mrs. Cutting has grouped her antique silver objects on the table for decorative as well as for utilitarian purposes. The warm tone of the cream-colored cloth brings forth the glow of the old silver.— From Tiffany Table Settings, 1960

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