Soup in a Mustachioed Gilded Age

“It seems from these extracts to be the rule of highly-cultured nations, that no one should speak while he is eating soup, and, considering the modern mustache, it may be a very appropriate police regulation.” — Three “Mustache Spoon” designs from the Gilded Age for eating soup, including one for left-handed dining. Many of these spoons were also occasionally marketed as “Noiseless Soup Spoons.” During the period there was great focus on silently keeping a gentleman’s mustache free of foods and liquids. 

—Photo source Etiquipedia’s private library 

There are some dinner rules in high fashion we may not all know. For instance, in the new novel, “Aristocracy,” this passage occurs: “‘I dare say you'll find England very different from America, Mr Allen,’ Lady Oaktorrington (pronounced ottor) says after the removal of the soup, during which course not a word had been spoken at table.” 

And how it is in France one may gather from Guy de Maupassant’s novel, “Belami,” in which this occurs: “The servant announced: ‘Madame is served.’ then they adjourned to the dining room. Duray found himself seated between Mme. de Marelle and her daughter. *** No one spoke while eating the soup.” This looks like it is by design. 

It seems from these extracts to be the rule of highly-cultured nations, that no one should speak while he is eating soup, and, considering the modern mustache, it may be a very appropriate police regulation. But we must not too quickly jump at conclusions. We all know that sometimes at American dinner parties, in the matter of early conversation, one finds himself, as it were, silently “in the soup.” - Louisville Courier Journal, 1890

Patented “Mustache Holders” and lifters of the era were also sold to those who worried about appearances while dining. As popular as mustaches were at the time, the mustache spoons, along with cups and other mustache-themed items sold very well, even if their patented designs looked downright ridiculous when sent to the patent office to great, unintended comic effect. 

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

Etiquette of Wartime Beards

Twenty-five years ago, the fashion of shaving was so tyrannical and bigoted that the Englishman who wore a beard was looked upon as revolutionary in politics and heretical in faith. Archbishop Tait, a most liberal prelate, when Bishop of London, forbade a clergyman of the highest character to read prayers in his own church on the occasion of a confirmation, because he let the hair grow on his upper lip. – Above, an 1891 patent for a mustache spoon. These types of spoons supposedly helped keep soups off of the popular Gilded Age beards, too.

It is reported that a recent order allows the British soldier to do as he pleases about shaving. He can now suffer a natural growth to conceal the least shapely part of his face and protect important organs of life. The permission marks the highest reach of the beard movement in England.

Yet twenty-five years ago, the fashion of shaving was so tyrannical and bigoted that the Englishman who wore a beard was looked upon as revolutionary in politics and heretical in faith. Archbishop Tait, a most liberal prelate, when Bishop of London, forbade a clergyman of the highest character to read prayers in his own church on the occasion of a confirmation, because he let the hair grow on his upper lip.

Lord Chief Justice Bruce refused to hear a bearded young lawyer, who attempted to address him. Merchants forbade beards to their clerks. A London bank issued an edict that “Gentlemen were not to wear beards or mustaches during office-hours.” Congregations refused to hear the sermons of ministers who appeared as, doubtless, the Master did, with their faces. unshorn of their natural growth of hair.

Even in the United States, the beard-movement encountered fierce and foolish opposition. The late Dr. Hopkins, of Vermont, was one of the few clergymen who dared to go unshorn. When he was elected a Bishop of the Episcopal Church, many hints were given him that he should shave and thus show proper respect for the sacred office. He declined to follow the suggestion, and now a score of members of the House of Bishops wear their beards.

Men may not match women in the extravagance of their devotion to fashion, but, certainly, no brother has the right to cast a stone at his sister, seeing that the history of the beard records so many illustrations of male folly. She may be guilty of tight-lacing and thereby suffer from ill-health and a disfigured form. But he, if he shaves, exposes himself to throat diseases and possibly the weakest and most unsightly part of his face to public view, and that, too, against the efforts of nature to protect and hide it. — Daily Telegraph, 1914

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

Etiquette and Mustache Guards

“To abandon the mustache is almost out of the question. Inasmuch as that appendage is highly ornamental to the masculine visage, making many a homely man good looking and contributing pulchritude even to the most beautiful specimens in pantaloons.” — This patent for a mustache guard by T. Ferry was as applied for in 1900. Several other types are shown below.

Mustache Guards for the Gilded Age

If nature had contemplated soup she would never have provided man with a mustache. That civilized man cannot live without dining is undeniable, and a good dinner is almost necessarily introduced by soup. But the average male human being whose upper lip is unshaven finds it very difficult to eat his potage in a neat and well bred manner.

To abandon the mustache is almost out of the question. Inasmuch as that appendage is highly ornamental to the masculine visage, making many a homely man good looking and contributing pulchritude even to the most beautiful specimens in pantaloons.

The problem has furnished inspiration to a number of inventors, who during the past few years have applied for patents on “mustache guards” of various kinds. All of them are ingenious, and, taken together, they show that a vast amount of earnest thought has been expended in the effort to produce a contrivance that will give happiness to the man with the hirsute lip by enabling him to eat his soup gracefully and comfortably.

Latest of the Inventors in this line is T. Ferry of Wilmington, Del., who only a couple of weeks ago took out a patent on a mustache guard for which one advantage claimed is that it may be “easily carried in the vest pocket.” It is a sort of comb arrangement, and, holding itself in place by a pair of springs at the sides, keeps the hairy ornament up and out of the way of the mouth. — J. A. Moore of Cambridgeport, Mass., 1905

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