Gilded Age Fashion of Dinner Service

There are several types of soups, therefore there are several types of soup bowls and soup plates, with appropriate soup spoons to go with each. Above is a low, wide bowled, “soup plate.” It is not referred to as a “soup bowl.” - “When the host helps the soup, a small ladleful for each person is the proper quantity, a soup plate should not be filled with soup.”

The usual and fashionable mode of serving dinner is called Dîner à la Russe, although at small or friendly dinners the host sometimes prefers to carve the joint himself in the first course, and the birds in the second course. But dinner-tables, whether for dining à la Russe, or for dining en famille, are invariably arranged in the same style, the difference being merely the extent of the display made as regards flowers, plate and glass, which are the accessories of the dining-table.

When the host helps the soup, a small ladleful for each person is the proper quantity, a soup plate should not be filled with soup.

When the party is a small one, and the joint or birds are carved by the host, the helps should be handed to the guests in the order in which they are seated, although occasionally the ladies are helped before the gentlemen.

The rule at all dinner-parties is for the servant to commence serving by handing the dishes to the lady seated at the host's right hand, then to the lady seated at the host's left hand, and from thence the length of the table to each guest in the order seated, irrespective of sex.

Double entrées should be provided at large dinner-parties, and the servants should commence handing the dishes at both sides of the table simultaneously.— From “Manners and Rules of Good Society or Solecisms to be Avoided,” 1898

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