Table for One: A Hostess Sat Alone

As one of the guests said, “it was too deliciously funny to resent, and the smile which I could not repress I saw reflected from most of the other faces of the company about me.”

At a pretty dinner given recently, the guests, numbering forty, were seated, eight each, at five round tables. Each table was decorated with one variety of flower, and on arriving each guest was presented with a small bouquet of the flowers corresponding to those on the table at which he was to find his place. The table where the host and hostess were seated was placed at such an angle as to command a view of the company by one or the other of them.

This keeping in touch with the guests is a difficulty encountered by all givers of large dinners. In this regard, a New-York woman not long ago quite overreached herself. So puzzled was she at which table to sit herself, that she finally cut the Gordian knot by dining alone at a small table placed in the centre of her guests. As one of the guests said, “it was too deliciously funny to resent, and the smile which I could not repress I saw reflected from most of the other faces of the company about me.”– The New York Times, 1892

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

Gent’s Tabletop Novelties of 1882

A gilded age, sterling menu card holder, in the form of a stag’s head — “For gentleman's dinner parties menu cards painted by hand are in vogue, representing some very realistic part of the preparations for the entertainment. Upon one, the cook in cap and apron, is tossing a pancake, on another the butler has just drawn the cork, and so on through the series.”

Much amusement is derived at some popular dinners from the cards which indicate the seats of guests. They are of endless variety, are often printed expressly to order, and contain witty illusions or satirical pictures. The newest are mounted upon ribbons of bright colors, about 3 inches wide, which are fringed out at the edges, and upon the center of which is a painting is either executed upon the material itself or upon a tinted card.

For a recent farewell bachelor dinner, on the eve of a wedding, such cards, made expressly to order by Tiffany, each one being reserved for a special guest as a memento of the occasion, cost $3 a piece. For hunting dinners floral decorations assume characteristic shapes, and a rabbit, hare, or game of some kind appears in emblematic form upon the table. Novel napkin rings are made of flowers, wired into shape and placed upon the serviette. although they serve no useful purpose they are ornamental.

For gentleman's dinner parties menu cards painted by hand are in vogue, representing some very realistic part of the preparations for the entertainment. Upon one, the cook in cap and apron, is tossing a pancake, on another the butler has just drawn the cork, and so on through the series. For ordinary dinners, menu cards are upon tinted Bristol board, and the newest card style is to have a vignette on one corner, date and place of the entertainment occupying the other. This is on single cards, but those referred to above are double and are intended to be laid opposite the plate of the guest.— New York Times, 1882

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