Napkin History and Etiquette

Napkins can properly be placed on top of plates or to the left of the place setting, but never under plates or utensils.– Image source from Reaching for the Right Fork… the evolution of tabletop utensils

The napkin has played famous parts in the fortunes of men and women. It was one of the points admired in Marie Stuart that, thanks to her exquisite breeding in the court of Marie de Medici, her table was more imposing than the full court of her great rival and executioner, Elizabeth. At the table of the latter, the rudest forms were maintained, the dishes were served on the table, and the great Queen helped herself to the platter without fork or spoon, a page standing behind her with a silver ewer to bathe her fingers when the flesh had been torn from the roasts. 

At the court of the late Empire, Eugene was excessively fastidious. The use of the napkin, and the manner of eating an egg, made or ruined the career of a guest. The great critic, Sainte Beuve, was disgraced and left off the visiting list because, at a breakfast with the Emperor and Empress, at the Tuileries, he carelessly opened his napkin and spread it over his own knees and cut his eggs in two in the middle. The court etiquette prescribed that the half-folded napkin should be on the left knee, to be used in the least obstructive manner in touching the lips, and the egg was to be merely broken on the larger end with the edge of the spoon and drained with its tip. – Philadelphia Press, 1882

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