Etiquette for the Tea or Breakfast Table

Settings for Tea have changed very little over the past 200 years. Settings for Breakfasts have changed dramatically, however, as breakfasts have become less and less formal, with far fewer foods served, than they were in the 19th century, through to the gilded age, and Edwardian era in the early 20th century. 

Setting a Table for Breakfast or Tea

1. Lay the rug square with the room, and smooth and even.

2. Set the table square with the room, and see that the legs are properly placed to support the leaves and to stand firmly.

3. Put on the tablecloth, square with the table, and make it lie smooth and even.

4. Put on the waiter, for breakfast or tea, and set the saucers and cups on in two or three piles, and the spoons in the slop-bowl; or, if there are few persons to eat, set the cups in the saucers, with a spoon to each. Set the sugar and slop-bowls and cream-cup the back side of the waiter, and put the spoon or sugar-tongs on the sugar-bowl.

5. Lay the mats on the table, in a regular order, and set the plates around the table, at regular distances, putting at each plate a napkin, and a cup-stand.

6. Put a knife and fork to each plate, laying them even, and all in a similar manner. If meat is used, put the carving-knife and fork and steel by the master of the house.

7. Set the tea or coffee-pot on a mat, at the right side of the waiter, and the dishes on the mats, putting them in a regular order.

8. If meat is used, set the caster in the center, and at two oblique corners set the salt, between two large spoons crossed. Lay the salt-spoons across the stands, and put the mustard-spoon by its cup.

9. Set the chairs.

From Catharine E. Beecher’s, “A Treatise on Domestic Economy,” 1841

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