The Well-Dressed Servants of 1931

A fairly small establishment can get along with a butler, chauffeur, footman, cook, valet, wife’s maid two chambermaids and two kitchen maids, if there are no children requiring nursemaids and a governess, the servants are usually under a secretary. – Photo source, Pinterest

NEW YORK.—Costuming servants, I am told by people who know people who have servants, is a big problem in the town’s lavish homes. The butler must be attired properly for the time of day. The chauffeur must present the right “front” as he waits for his master outside the bank. And one of the cares of living on Park Avenue is whether the footman should appear in knee pants. Then there’s the color scheme. Green or maroon is favored by most families for the servants' livery. The Vanderbilts are marooners, but the Whitneys deck their men servants in blue. 

One of the finest staffs of servants in the country waits on the family of Edward F. Hutton, the stock broker. The exact number serving the Huttons is not available, but they have about 32 in their Florida home alone. Even John D. Rockefeller, Sr., a leading livery tailor says, has a less elaborate menage. Like other extremely wealthy families, the Huttons have head butlers and chauffeurs, with staffs of subordinates. The Huttons ordered seven butler outfits from a tailor at the same time, so he figured they must have several butlers. Their chauffeurs are six. 

A fairly small establishment can get along with a butler, chauffeur, footman, cook, valet, wife’s maid two chambermaids and two kitchen maids, if there are no children requiring nursemaids and a governess, the servants are usually under a secretary. The butler ranks next. He never wears livery, if he is young and the family smart, he may wear a cutaway in the morning. The old family butler retains a gray-sack coat. In the afternoon, the well-dressed butler changes to a tail coat with his striped trousers. For evening, he changes trousers and emerges in formal dress, like his master’s, except that he wears a black vest with his tail coat, wing collar and white tie.– From “Broadway Echoes,” 1931

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

Carriage and Auto Etiquette

Slowly and deliberately she turns to the footman and mentions the destination to which she will be driven. It is regarded as a shade more elegant for the lady to look directly in front of her, and, not noticing the waiting footman entirely, to speak her wishes as if she were addressing the wind, as if it ought to be glad to obey her.

Shades of snobbery and class warfare in early 20th century America – “My dear footman, you are the wind and happy to obey me!”

Carriage etiquette is rigid and precise. Take the matter of getttng into a Victoria, for example. The footman stands on the sidewalk. He may have the lap robe over his arms, or it may be spread over the front of the carriage. The lady steps into the Victoria without noticing the respectful way in which he touches his cockaded hat. She settles herself comfortably down in the cushions. Then her part is done and his begins. 

It is his task to tuck the lap robe about you, and then pass back of the carriage, and see that it is properly adjusted on the other side. All this must be done with the greatest deliberation. The footman finally finishes his work and places himself on the sidewalk by the Victoria to receive his mistress' orders. It is then that his mistress for the first time says where she is going. To be really elegant, the lady must show no signs of hurry.

Slowly and deliberately she turns to the footman and mentions the destination to which she will be driven. It is regarded as a shade more elegant for the lady to look directly in front of her, and, not noticing the waiting footman entirely, to speak her wishes as if she were addressing the wind, as if it ought to be glad to obey her.

In calling, the lady does not leave her carriage until the footman has rung the doorbell and learned if the lady of the house is at home. If she it not, he leaves the card and returns to the vehicle for orders, says the Washington Post. The same thing is required of the chauffeur of a private motor. The arrival of a private motor in front of a house has, indeed, come to be an occasion of ceremony.

The vehicle hurdles up. The chauffeur alights, opens the door, and receives the card. He goes up the steps and rings the bell. The lady is at home. He hands in the card and returns to the motor.

Its occupant then alights. If there is a footman, he accompanies her up the steps to ring the bell again if necessary. In any case, he must extricate the occupant of the vehicle before he allows her to alight from the motor. – Los Angeles Herald, 1906

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