Gilded Age Gent’s Table Etiquette

     

Above is a carved, sheep’s bone, apple corer from the 1600’s along with a Georgian era silver apple corer from 1808, next to a gilded age fruit knife and a rare, gilded age “melon” knife. Fruit served at the table needed to be eaten with utensils and a gentleman at the table was indispensable for coring fruit like apples or plums for the young lady seated next to him. Women were not allowed to perform such a masculine etiquette task as coring their own fruit. A true gentleman carried his corer with him in his pocket, to pull out when called upon. 

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It is a piece of refined coarseness to employ the fingers instead of the fork to effect certain operations at the dinner table, and on some other similar occasions. To know how and when to follow the fashion of Eden, and when that of more civilized life, is one of the many points which distinguish a gentleman from one not a gentleman; or rather, in this case, which shows the difference between a man of the world, and one who has not “the tune of the time.” (Shakespeare) ~ Cardinal Richelieu detected an adventurer who passed himself off for a nobleman, by his helping himself to olives with a fork. He might have applied the test to a vast many other things. Yet, on the other hand, a gentleman would lose his reputation, if he were to take up a piece of sugar with his fingers and not with the sugar-tongs. – From The Laws of Etiquette, 1836

Found Under 

“Etiquette of a Gentleman”

A silver knife and fork should be placed to each guest at dessert. If you are asked to prepare fruit for a lady, be careful to do so by means of the silver knife and fork only, and never to touch it with your fingers. — By P. F. Collier, Collier’s Cyclopedia of Social & Commercial Usage, 1882

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

Etiquette of Georgian Era Place Settings

Late Georgian table-setting, c.1790 — Photograph: Jeremy Phillips for Fairfax House, York.

By the end of the eighteenth century the English ceramic factories were producing a high standard of porcelain for the dining room table, competing at all levels on quality and price with foreign imports. This superb gilded plate by Chamberlains Worcester, c. 1805, has the coat of arms for Thompson of York. Bill Brown's attendant knife and fork (B253) is remarkably up to date in style and shape, although it was made in Sheffield in the 1760s.

Notice also the marvelous ‘Beilby’ wine glass made for John Thomas, Bishop of Rochester, and the neoclassical silver-gilt candlesticks by John Scofield, 1780.

Manuals of instruction at this time indicate that it was acceptable for a bottle or decanter to be placed on the dining-room table and this example, of mullet shape, is engraved on the body with an uplifting motto: ‘Old Brown and Good Company’. — From “British Cutlery, An Illustrated History of Design, Evolution and Use”, York Civic Trust, 2001

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

Georgian Etiquette for Gentlewomen

Gentlewomen, the first thing you are to observe is, to keep your back straight, and do not lean your elbows on the table.
—Photo source, Fanpop

How To Eat 

Social Etiquette Advice, circa 1831

An English magazine has brought to light a “Manual on Social Etiquette” which was promulgated many years ago. We give an extract or two: “Gentlewomen, the first thing you are to observe is, to keep your back straight, and do not lean your elbows on the table. Discover not by any ravenous gesture your angry appetite, nor fix your eyes too greedily on the meat before you as if you would devour more that way, than your throat can swallow.”

In another page: “Do not eat spoon-meat so hot that the tears stand in your eyes, or that thereby you betray your intolerable greediness. Do not bite your bread, but cut or break it, and keep not your knife always in your hand, for that is as unseemly as a gentlewoman who pretended to have as little a stomach as she had a mouth, and, therefore, would not swallow her peas by spoonfuls, but took them one by one, and cut them in two before she could eat them.”

Gentlewomen are further instructed: “Fill not your mouth so full, that your cheeks shall swell like a pair of Scotch bagpipes.” Gentlewomen are also pleasantly put on their guard against the possible perpetration of certain minor misdemeanors: “You will show yourself too saucy by calling for sauce on any dainty things. Avoid smacking in your eating. Forbear putting both hands to your mouth at once; nor gnaw your meat, but cut it handsomely, and eat sparingly.” The latter admonition is addressed to what the author styles “the female younger sort,” but always gentlewoman born and bred. — From “Public Opinion” periodical, 1863

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

Etiquette and Grace Under Pressure

Georgian Era shaving —"John, why do you not fetch a strop and razor, you see your master is going to shave himself?" Philip's greediness was checked for that meal!

Chesterfield's Coolness

The Earl of Chesterfield was called the first gentleman of his age. It. was a cardinal point of etiquette with him never to exhibit ill temper in company, or be remiss in courtesy to any guest. But he was sometimes sorely tried hy the rude and awkward manners of his son, Philip Stanhope, whom he tried in vain to educate to gentlemanly habits. 

Philip was a great glutton, and could not restrain his appetite even in company. On one occasion, when his father had invited a large number of titled guests, an elegant entertainment was provided. One of the rare dishes was a platter of baked gooseberries, snowed over with rich cream. Philip had been helped bountifully by Lady Chesterfield, who knew his weakness. 

But when the servant was taking out the dish in clearing the table, Philip beckoned to him, and taking it in his hand began to lap up greedily the rich cream. Lord Chesterfield was disgusted, but without a change of face or voice to indicate the tempest within, said in a calm tone to the servant: "John, why do you not fetch a strop and razor, you see your master is going to shave himself?" Philip's greediness was checked for that meal.—New York Press, 1891

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