Etiquette Hints for the 1929 Housewife

The meal should be announced in the following manner: “Dinner (or other meal) is served.” Handle all silver by the handles.

• A guest of honor, if a woman, is seated on the right of the host; if a man, seated on the right of the hostess.
• The hostess may be served first, then the ones on her right. Keep the same order around the table.
• Fill water glasses three-fourths full. 
• Pass all dishes at the left.
• Place and clear from the right when possible. 
• All plates for crackers, cakes, etc., should be covered with a doily.
• Hot breads should be folded in a napkin. 
• The table should be crumbed before the dessert is brought in.
• The meal should be announced in the following manner: “Dinner (or other meal) is served.” 
• Handle all silver by the handles.
• Handle goblets by the stem, and tumblers at the bottom.
• Never lift a glass from the table to refill it.
• If salad is served with the main course, it should be placed on the right, on a line with the plate.
• The food should not be brought into the dining room until all is in readiness to serve it.
• Food is removed from the table first, then the soiled dishes.
• Be sure that all dishes for hot food are hot, and those for cold food, cold.
• All silver should be placed on a line equally distant from the edge of the table, about one inch. — From “The Art of Table Setting,” by Lilian Gunn, 1929

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

Setting a Breakfast Table, 1905

Blue and white is a good combination, and is, perhaps, more suitable for the morning meal than anything else. As a certain philosopher says: “The blue and white look so pretty with the eggs!”

Having said so much, we proceed, not to our mutton, as the French have it, but to our breakfast, in which the table plays no small nor unimportant part.

There are rumors that the pretty and sensible fashion of doilies on the bare table is on the wane, but let us hope these are untrue, or, if not, that some of us may have the courage of our convictions and continue to adhere to a custom which has everything in its favor and nothing against it.

In the absence of handsome top of oak or mahogany, the breakfast cloths, fringed or not, as one likes, which are about a yard and a quarter square, are the next best thing. Asbestos mats, under the cloth, protect the table from the hot dishes. Failing these, fairly satisfactory substitutes are made from thin white oil-cloth, between two layers of canton flannel, “fur side outside,” and quilted on the machine. Grass table-mats are also used, but always under cloth or doily. Canton flannel, quilted, three layers to a mat, is easily washed, and furnishes a great deal of protection.

Breakfast, most assuredly, is not dinner, and there should be a distinct difference in the laying of the table. The small doilies are easily washed, and fresh ones are possible every morning—an assured gain in the way of daintiness.

Let us suppose that we have a handsome table-top, and an unlimited supply of doilies, tray-cloths and centrepieces. First the centrepiece goes on, exactly in the centre, by the way, and not with a prejudiced leaning to one side or the other. On this belongs the pot of growing fern, the low jar containing a few simple flowers, or a bowl of fruit, decorated with green leaves, if green leaves are to be had.

At each place the breakfast doily, nine or twelve inches square, a small doily for the coffee cup, and another for the glass of water. At the right of the plate, the small silver knife, sharp edge toward the plate, the spoons for fruit and cereal; at the left, one fork, or two, as needed, and the coffee spoon.

In front of the master of the house the small platter containing the pièce de résistance will eventually be placed; in front of the mistress of the mansion, the silver tray bearing the coffee service—coffee-pot, hot-water pitcher, cream jug, milk pitcher, and sugar bowl.

Breakfast napkins are smaller than dinner napkins, and the small fringed napkins are not out of place. “Costly thy habit as thy purse [11]will buy” might well refer to linen, for it is the one thing in which price is a direct guarantee of quality.

Satisfactory breakfast cloths and napkins are made of linen sheeting, fringed, hemstitched, or carefully hemmed by hand, and in this way a pretty cloth can be had for less money than in any other. The linen wears well, washes beautifully, and acquires a finer sheen with every tubbing. Insertions and borders of torchon or other heavy lace make a breakfast cloth suitable for the most elaborate occasion, and separate doilies may easily be made to match. The heavy white embroidery which has recently come into favor is unusually attractive here.

Finger-bowls wait on the sideboard, to be placed after the fruit course, or after breakfast. The rose-water, slice of lemon, geranium leaves, and other finger-bowl refinements in favor for dinners are out of place at breakfast. Clear, cool water is in better taste.

The china used at the breakfast table should be different from that used at dinner. Heavier ware is permissible, and more latitude in the way of decoration is given. Much of the breakfast china one sees in the shops is distinctly cheerful in tone, and one must take care to select the more quiet patterns. It is not pleasant to go to breakfast with a fickle appetite, and be greeted by a trumpet-toned “Good Morning” from the china.

Endless difference is allowed, however, and all the quaint, pretty jugs, pitchers, and plates may properly be used at breakfast. One is wise, however, to have a particular color scheme in mind and to buy all china to blend with it. Blue and white is a good combination, and is, perhaps, more suitable for the morning meal than anything else. As a certain philosopher says: “The blue and white look so pretty with the eggs!”

The carafe, muffin plate, platter, and all other bowls, platters, plates, and pitchers not on the individual cover have each a separate doily, with the protecting mat always under hot dishes. A well-set table is governed by a simple law—that of precision. Dishes arranged in an order little less than military, all angles either right or acute, will, for some occult reason, always look well. Informality may be given by the arrangement of the flowers, or by a flower or two laid carelessly on the table. But one must be careful not to trifle too much with this law of precision. Knives, forks, and spoons must all be laid straight, but not near enough together to touch, and napkins and dishes must be precisely placed, else confusion and riot will result.

The breakfast selected as a type consists of fruit, a cereal, salt fish, or salt meat, or eggs, or omelets, hot bread of some kind, and pancakes or waffles, or coffee cake, one dish from each group, and coffee. Six dishes in all, which may be less if desired, but never more. All six form a breakfast sufficiently hearty for a stone mason or a piano mover; one or two give a breakfast light enough to tempt those who eat no breakfast at all. For serving it are required small and medium-sized plates, knives, forks, spoons, egg cups, platters, service plates, cups and saucers, glasses, coffee-pot, pitchers, sugar bowl, and cream jug, syrup pitcher, and fruit bowl.

Fruit is said to be “gold in the morning,” and it is a poor breakfast, indeed, from which it is omitted. Even in winter it is not hard to secure variety, if time and thought be taken, for the dried fruits are always in the market and by careful cooking may be made acceptable to the most uncertain appetite.

Medical authorities recommend a glass of water taken the first thing upon rising, either hot or cold as suits one best. A little lemon-juice takes the “flat” taste from plain hot water, and clear, cool water, not iced, needs nothing at all. This simple observance of a very obvious hygienic rule will temper the tempestuous morning for any one. One washes his face, his hands, his body—then why not his stomach, which has worked hard a large part of the night, and is earnestly desirous of the soothing refreshment of a bath?

To those carping critics who cavil at the appearance of the stomach in a chapter entitled “How to Set the Table,” we need only say that the table is set for the stomach, and the stomach should be set for the table, and anyway, it comes very near being a table of contents, n’est-ce pas? — From, “The Myrtle Reed Cook Book,” 1905

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

The New Tiffany Table Settings

“The New Tiffany Table Settings” of 1981 is filled with simple to elegant tables and table settings, created by some of the most successful hosts and hostesses of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Below is the book’s foreword.

The history of modern table setting opened on a momentous day in 1633 when Charles I of England declared once and for all that “it is decent to use a fork.” Since then the table's arts have prospered while all manner of refinements and curiosities have been seen, some practical, some stylish, some simply preposterous.

Tables are as much as ever stages that we set for action, miniature theaters of social behavior where a good percentage of every life is played out. There love blossoms or withers, careers are made or undone, fortunes are founded or squandered. The table is a place for enjoyment, for wit, for discovery, for celebration, for art, for intrigue. There we set out props that forecast the order of events and that imply whatever we desire from social exchange.

Anyone can set a table, and anyone can set it well with whatever means are available, provided that imagination and vitality are both brought to the task. The success of a table setting depends not on financial considerations but on having a point of view, on having a personal style rather than timidly depending on bland and faceless conventionalities.

In the pages that follow, there are table settings done at the request of Tiffany & Co. by some seventy-five well-known personalities of society, entertainment, the arts, business, and design. They have brought to their settings the same flair and authority that have brought them such remarkable success in the world. Each setting is in a way the self-portrait of its author. There are no answers given to the question of how to set a table, but the collective answer is: “Do what you want, and do your best.”

In 1808 the great French authority on entertaining Alexandre Balthasar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière published his famed Manuel des Amphitryons. In it he exhorted the good host or hostess not to hold back or to be ashamed of originality and generosity, and his advice remains valid: “Don't be afraid to put your fortune in evidence and do honor to it; do nothing to pardon its sources as there is no more honorable way to use it than to offer food.” — Foreword from “The New Tiffany Table Settings,”1981

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

Table Laying Etiquette of 1908

Marion Harland wrote “The Housekeeper’s Week,” along with the books “Complete Cook Book” and “Everyday Etiquette”

Laying the Table

One of the tasks which practice should make perfect, but often does not, is laying the table. A thing that is done three times a day, three hundred and sixty-five times in the year should be done skilfully, and yet the awkwardly arranged table is not an infrequent occurrence. The following are the conventionally accepted rules and arrangements.

A canton flannel or asbestos cover should be provided to lay under the table-cloth as a protection to the table when a table-cloth is used. It may be said that the asbestos covers, now much in vogue, are valuable additions to the housekeeper's store, as they absolutely protect the table from burns and can, the best of them, be rolled up like a flannel cloth. They are not, however, to be obtained at every department store but are the property of special dealers.

For breakfast and luncheon the use of table mats of various sizes is, at the present time, more general than the use of a table-cloth. When the cloth is used, as at dinner, it should be laid so that the central crease strikes the exact center of the table. Place knives and spoons at the right of the plate, having the ends of the handles near the edge of the table. The sharp edge of the knives should be turned toward the plate, and the inside of the bowls of the spoons turned up. The forks should be to the left, and in side up. The napkins should be on the plate or at the left hand side with the water glasses a little to the right and top edge of the plate. At the top of the plate in the middle the individual salt-cellar should be placed. If the meal in the case is breakfast, small butter plates and butter knives may be added to the furnishings of the table; and the service for coffee or chocolate or both should be placed before the mistress of the house.

If the meal in question is dinner, the carving-set and knife and fork should be placed before the carver. The amount of silver on the table will depend upon the number of courses served.

In case the duties of the house are performed by one maid, it is well to dispense at breakfast and luncheon with service beyond the proper disposition of dishes on the table. This is indeed the English fashion and gives a pleasant informality to those meals. But service there should be, and of the right kind at dinner.

Serving the dinner: The maid should stand quietly behind the carver while the meat is being carved. She should take each plate from him and set it before the person for whom it is intended. She should then pass the vegetables and condiments if any. The plates should be removed after each course, and before the dessert is brought on, everything except the glasses and the flowers should be removed and the cloth should be cleared of crumbs by the use of a crumb knife and tray or by the use of a fresh napkin.

Though there are some differences of opinion on this point, the generally accepted rule is that the maid must go to the left side of the person served when the dish is one from which he helps himself, thus giving him the free use of his right hand, — to the right when it is something that she places on the table. For instance she must go to the right with the plate served by the carver, to the left with the vegetable dish from which the diner helps himself. Some authorities, however, insist that everything shall be served from the left except water and other liquids that can be poured into a glass.

In removing dishes the waitress should never pile one upon another and should not attempt to take more than two plates at a time. Perhaps it is unnecessary in this day and age to say that the silver should be placed in the center of the plate, the knife, fork and spoon side by side and not at varying and dangerous angles.

The rules given are the elementary ones merely of table serving. It takes but a short time for a maid to make a conquest of them and rigid adherence to them should be insisted upon. There is no one of the daily round of tasks that contributes more perhaps to the esthetic happiness of the family than that of quiet and efficient service at the dinner table. — Marion Harland in The Housekeeper’s Week, 1908

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

A 1959 Table Setting Competition

A 1950’s inspired bridge game luncheon place setting with period silver-plate, Lenox dish ware and glassware, Belleek china, cigarettes, ashtray and matches. It was created for a California sesquicentennial historical exhibit on 150 years of dining – Categories for which applications would be received for the 1959 competition were: (1) Formal, (2) Informal, and (3) Patio. Clubs entering a table setting had the prerogative of choosing any theme decor which they wished, using to the best advantage their china, crystal, silver, table linen, flowers and other fitting appointments. 
– Image source, Cliff Graber

South Bay Opti-Mrs. Announced a Charity Table Setting Contest in 1959

“An Invitation to Creativity”is offered to the clubwomen of the South Bay area by the South Bay Opti-Mrs. in their first annual Table Setting set for Nov. 7, between the hours of 11 a.m. and 9 p.m., at the centrally located National City Community Building on 12th street. Benefit event will be a highlight of winter social calendar. According to Mrs. Betty Hall, president of the South Bay OptiMrs:, bids to compete in the club's Table Setting Contest are ready for mailing to presidents of clubs in the South Bay area. Because of space limitations the number of entries will be restricted to 30 with applications to be considered on an “accept as received to absolute 30-no more basis.” Judges are being selected; more detailed information will be announced via the press between now and Nov. 7

Categories for which applications will be received for the Nov. 7 competition are: (1) Formal, (2) Informal, and (3) Patio. Clubs entering a table setting have the prerogative of choosing any theme decor which they wish using to the best advantage their china, crystal, silver, table linen, flowers and other fitting appointments. Their decor may convey the idea of any season or holiday, and the final judging will be made upon the completed table setting and its all-around effectiveness from attractiveness and excellence of taste criteria.

A jury of competent judges will decide which of the competing table settings is superior in each of the three defined categories. The judging will be be tween 11 a.m. and noon Nov. 7. The event or season depicted may in a large measure deter mine the particular category in to which the given table setting will fall. For instance, if a given South Bay club chooses to enter a beautifully appointed bride's table, this table setting in all likelihood will fall into the formal category for judging purposes.

Each club president who wishes to enter her club's “creative effort” in the Nov. 7 table setting contest is requested to mail her organization's application blank to either Mrs. Mildred Smith, Paradise Hills, or Mrs. Betty Hall, National City. The table setting contest entries following official judging will be on public view Nov. 7, between the hours of 12 noon and 9 p.m., at a nominal charge to the spectator. All monies derived from the competition will benefit the girls’ work fund of South Bay Opti-Mrs. Public support is solicited in behalf of this challenging, original benefit event. Only with the wholehearted support of clubs in he South Bay, area will it suceed! Club presidents watch for those application blanks which will reach you soon via the mail! – National City Star News, 1959

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

Tablescaping History and Etiquette

Decorator Elsie de Wolfe, shown above, set a “radical table” in 1934: Carved chunks of rock crystal on a silver lamé tablecloth. In the history of the American centerpiece, Elise's glamorous rocks and lamé landmark was halfway between the follies of the Victorians and the equally silly indulgences of the 1960s.

“With her shrill instruction that plates should be ‘hot, hot, hot’ and centerpieces ‘low, low, low,’ decorator Elsie de Wolfe came off slightly tamer than her usual avant-garde self. Never fear. Unmentioned were the details of the practices she preached, like the radical table she set in 1934: Carved chunks of rock crystal on a silver lamé tablecloth. In the history of the American centerpiece, Elsie’s glamorous rocks and lamé landmark was halfway between the follies of the Victorians and the equally silly indulgences of the 1960s. Every decade in this century has had its own ephemeral centerpiece style, inspired by a sometimes unlikely grab bag of sources, from clothing to window displays, from current events to cartoons.

Sturdily conservative Victorians favored variations on the formula of epergne, candlesticks, vases, and garlands. These objects were symmetrically laid out over the entire table with the precision of a golf course. Fodder for the standard flower arrangement included ferns, irises, roses, carnations, tulips, violets, and daisies. Nothing too violently colored — or strong smelling — became a table decoration before 1914, apparently with good reason. ‘I shivered through a whole meal where blue plates swore at a raw-green vase holding purple asters,’ confessed one sensitive reader to Good Housekeeping in1909. 

“She suggested one need not even have a matching set of dining-room chairs, so it stands to reason she'd have been open to mis-matched plates, silver and beverage ware, as long as they too, complemented one another” and of course, the etiquette of the table had to remain correct to suit the menu being served.

In The House in Good Taste, Elsie de Wolfe, argued for plainer, brighter, simpler, yet more refined homes. De Wolfe liked items in a room to complement one another, but did not believe every piece had to match. She suggested one need not even have a matching set of dining-room chairs, so it stands to reason she'd have been open to mis-matched plates, silver and beverage ware, as long as they too, complemented one another.

More adventurous was the school of the fantastical centerpiece, which flourished well into the early 1900s. Although they might appear to be derivative of a kiddie birthday party, these goofy prop-laden tableaux we're for adults only — paper lanterns, fans, parasols, birchbark canoes, baskets and toy bunnies ranked as decorations. Theme centerpieces recognized timely topics, such as the flight of a dirigeable or women's suffrage. Centerpieces also celebrated the hostess's skills with flowers, scissors, and ice pick, as many of the items were handmade. 

Several examples described in The Table, a 1904 decorating guide, helped the hostess create a cooling atmosphere for a summer meal. One centerpiece was built around a big block of ice, hollowed out to hold a bowl of water and live goldfish. Evergreen sprigs might be strewn on the table and newspaper clippings about blizzards pasted on the place cards. Harper's Bazaar tried to stem this ornamental rambunctiousness in 1910, scolding, ‘There is such a thing as carrying originality beyond the limits of good taste, forgetting the beautiful and the appropriate in our desire for the unusual.’ 

This 1911 Wallace Silversmiths’ advertisment showed a tablescaping for a festive fall table, suitable for Halloween or Thanksgiving – Etiquipedia presumes the Jack o’ lanterns could be replaced by turkeys for Thanksgiving.

By the early 1920s the magazine had its way. Fashionable hostesses abandoned arts and crafts projects for store-bought knickknacks, which reigned over tables for decades. China birds, cupids, Pierrots and nymphs were de rigueur. In the 1930s, surrealism and Walt Disney's new cartoons triggered a fresh round of a knickknack mania. Elegant, as well as silly objects (seashells, polar bear figurines) were ‘floated’ on mirror glass as comic conversation pieces.

While a timid bouquet and Georgian silver bowls still held a hallowed place on some tables, they were regarded as unutterably dull by the truly Chic 1930s hostess. Her mission was to conjure up a centerpiece that was shockingly original. Table setting contests across the country showcased this creativity. Women had to hustle (or hallucinate) to equal the tin pan extravaganza dreamed up by a Chicago clubwoman in 1930. On a cream satin tablecloth, she topped cookie sheets with angel food cake pans filled with cattails and kitchen molds heaped with pineapples, kumquats, and silver painted boxwood. In 1936, House & Garden met her effort more than halfway, with a centerpiece of bristly coral, prickly pears, pomegranates, pineapples, and seashells. Cecil Beaton used the same type of hilariously bizarre prop juxtapositions in his fashion photographs for Vogue.

Meanwhile, the modern mode caused a centerpiece casualty — the bouquet lost its cachet. It was replaced by a lonely white orchid or gardenia floating in a glass bowl. An equally cold-blooded glass-and-glitter scenario was engineered by industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague in 1933: a mirrored bowl and crystal prisms deployed amid black plates on a mirrored table.

Faced with wartime privations in the forties, even decorators like Dorothy Draper, who enjoyed expensive larger-than-life effects suggested thrift shops as a source for frugal table ornaments. With a nod to the victory garden, the humble vegetable was put to work, occasionally teamed with fruit or flowers. Typical table ornaments: baby carrots on a bed of lava rocks and yellow pottery, candles mixed with cabbages and peppers, and calla lilies in a wooden chopping bowl. A charmless utilitarian item, the lazy Susan, was now dignified as a ‘centerpiece.’

Although edible decorations continued to play a starring role after the war, they lost their stagey exaggeration in the 1950s. That decade stands as the stylistic low point in the history of the centerpiece. Even House & Garden lost its courage, putting grocery-laden arrangements in the spotlight: a melon shell stuffed with berries, tiers of nuts and mints, a pedestrian bowl of salad or basket of bread. 

The table was roused from its stupor in the sixties by a number of innovations. First, towering topiary-like arrangements: everything from shrimp to pea pods was toothpicked to florist’s foam, which had just been introduced. Another standard was the faux naif style, resurrected in the eighties. Mushrooms and ferns were presented in a silver basket, turnips piled in a Wedgewood bowl, stalks of rhubarb found with velvet ribbon. By mid-decade personal collectibles made for self-conscious tables. The fashion designer, Arnold Scaasi philosophized that the dining table, ‘where we spend only an hour or two can better afford to be far-out than anything else we live with.’ True to his word, Scaasi dished up a visual feast of rare shells, ivory utensils, a bell jar of butterflies, and brass objects squeezed in with jade cups and flowered plates.

The casual lifestyle promoted by the counterculture made the dining room — as well as the table itself — passé. Guests were seated at multiple small tables or on floor cushions. Centerpieces shrank to fit — or disappeared altogether. Those that survived had a handmade, throwaway style. Society, and society's dropouts alike, created happening tables with painted plastic poppies, bread sculpture, peacock feathers, handicraft candles, and blinking lights. For those so inclined, drug paraphernalia and ashtrays were practical accoutrements.

After this flower child glory, entertaining took a conservative turn: by 1973 the stylish turned to Ultrasuede tablecloths. Despite the example of Halston — as well as minimalist art and nouvelle cuisine, - centerpieces never took on a spare elegance. Hostesses in the seventies remained enthralled with the sixties passion for clusters of esoteric objects. For its readers, Vogue showed showed tables loaded with ivory candlesticks, tortoise shell cigarette boxes, mother-of-pearl ashtrays, and lacquered Chinese boxes. The flip side was the au naturel look: flowering quince branches shoved into a copper milk can, dwarf spruce trees, and garden variety plants in terra-cotta pots spilling soil onto the table.

Persisting into the eighties was the passion for a table littered with small precious objects. However, Judith Price, owner of Avenue magazine, had a fresher take on the decade's outlook. For a power breakfast, Price plunked down three video monitors as a centerpiece. On a grander scale, were the table settings professional "events designers" concocted for lavish benefits and parties. The decorations at a masked ball for gossip columnist, Suzy, held at the Plaza Hotel in 1985, epitomized eighties excess. Each table sprouted a lamé tree trunk drooping with crystal palm fronds, silver grapevines, moss, and orchids.

While most ornaments rate only as period pieces, Coco Chanel can be credited with an innovation that transcended fashion. At a dinner party sometime in the thirties, she made an alarm clock the centerpiece to claim her fair share of talk time against another loquacious guest, Salvador Dali. Chanel's clock solved two of the hostess's perennial problems: decoration and conversation. A centerpiece has no higher mission.” – by Writer, J. Shields, 1999

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

Etiquette and Tablescaping

Kudos to the Farm Bureau Home Department! — Competitive ‘tablescaping’ and table setting contests, staples of the county fair and philanthropic circuits, have been held since the late 1800’s in the United States. The tables shown above were set for competition in the Los Angeles County Fair Tablescaping Competition in the late 1990’s - early 2000’s. Tables are usually judged on etiquette, artistic touches and interpretation of the theme. Points weigh heavily on the etiquette. Taking artistic license with the ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ of proper place settings is generally frowned upon.
— Photo, Etiquipedia’s private library
 

Etiquette Contest Won by Farm Women

All the buzzing inside of the big fair tent last Friday was not caused by Bill Oates’ bees. It seems that The Record’s society reporter committed a faux pas in mentioning the fact that two of our most exclusive social organizations—the Alpha Club and Civic Club—were competing for a prize, and failing to state that the Women of the Farm Bureau Home Department were entered in this contest. 

We sent the editor of the sports’ column around in the afternoon and his well-trained nose easily detected the cause of the rumpus. To the chagrin of some of our social leaders, the Farm Women moved in and won this contest on etiquette. The judges noted such fine details as the placing of the salad fork and the cocktail spoon and had decreed that the Farm Women were the only ones who had set their table properly. The Civic Club won second prize and the Alpha Club third prize. We humbly apologize to the Farm Women for failing to note their prize winning entry in Friday’s issue. — Lompoc Record, 1927

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

Setting a Table in the 1920’s

In “Nancy Page” – The Pages are Entertained at an Architect’s Dinner

When Nancy and Peter returned from their southern trip they were welcomed back by the Culvers. They gave a dinner party for eight couples. Knowing that Nancy and Peter were interested in building, the centerpiece appropriately enough was a toy house. It set bravely in the midst of shrubbery made from small bitse of sponges dyed green. The place cards were small blue prints and each service plate was set on a simulated plate doily of a blue print. One doily showed the upstairs, another gave a side view, or a front elevation and so forth. The soup was served with toast sticks arranged log cabin fashion. Mrs. Culver said that the dessert should have been that popular, but dreadful, dish called “tin roof,” but she could not bring herself to spoil her dinner in that way. Of course they had chocolate chips as candy. 

She allowed eighteen inches space for each guest. This space is called a “cover.” On each cover she placed a service plate in the center and one inch from edge of table.

Mrs. Culver knew the way in which a table should be set. She allowed eighteen inches space for each guest. This space is called a “cover.” On each cover she placed a service plate in the center and one inch from edge of table. On the plate was a large dinner napkin folded in thirds and then in fifths. At the head of the forks was the bread and butter plate with bread and butter knife placed squarely across the plate. The salad fork was close to the plate on the left and the dinner fork was on outside left. The knife was at right of plate with soup spoon beyond that. Goblet was at top of knife. All sliver was exactly one inch from edge of table. This formality of setting makes for good looking tables, as Mrs. Culver knew. If you are interested in further details of table etiquette, write to Nancy Page, care of this paper, enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope, asking for her leaflet on “Table Etiquette.”– By Florence LaGanke syndicated as “Nancy Page”, San Pedro News Pilot, 1929

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

Table Setting Etiquette, 1934

This vintage breakfast table setting, shows how simplicity of arrangement, colors and effective selection of china may combine to make a happy beginning for the day. (Then again, Etiquipedia notes, the sugar and caffeine rush of the typical 1930’s diet, could have something to do with that happy beginning.)

Table setting is often a problem for housewives. Books of etiquette sometimes disagree sharply as to what’s proper. Sometimes it's a matter of geography, too, with the East and West far apart. For Western homes, where informality is the rule, the Safeway Stores Homemakers’ Bureau has prepared a guide. Here in outline form, are its main points: 

Table linen should be spotless. Doilies, either linen of lace, are appropriate for informal luncheons and dinners. Colored linens are used only for luncheon and breakfast. For more formal service, completely cover the table, using linen of banquet cloth or an elaborate lace cloth. This is placed on the bare, polished table and not over colored cloth. Napkins should match linen in color if not in material. Breakfast and luncheon napkins may be small, but dinner napkins should be from 18 to 20 inches square. They are placed to the left of the silver, or if the table is crowded, on the service plate. They may lay folded in a triangle for breaklast or lunch, but are usually folded very simply for dinner. If folded in rectangular shape, place with open lower corner nearest the plate. Never stand a napkin on the table. 

Table decorations should be kept simple. A centerpiece is always appropriate, but should be kept low, not obstructing the view across the table. Candles have no place on the luncheon or tea table, unless they are lighted and the room darkened by drawing the shades. Silverware, whether plate or sterling, should be kept well polished and courses should not be included in the menu if the proper silver is not available. However, it is possible to substitute for various pieces. The position of flat silver is, as a rule, one inch from the edge and vertical to the edge of the table, placing it in correct sequence as used, beginning from the outside and working towards the plate. For informal entertaining at home, not more than four or six pieces of silver (not counting the oyster fork) should be laid on the table at one time. These generally consist of knife, fork, salad fork and spoon. 

If necessary, additional pieces may be placed on the table before the course is served. Knives are laid cutting edge toward the plate, next and to the right of the plate. Spoons are placed next to the knife, bowls up and parallel with the knife, if soup is to be served, the bouillon, cream soup or large soup spoon is placed on the outside; and next, the teaspoon. Forks are placed on the left of the salad plate, tines up. If salad is served Western style (before the main course) the dinner fork is placed next to the plate and then the salad fork. If the salad is to be served with the main course, or after the main course, the salad fork is put next to the plate. The cocktail fork or spoon is placed on the cocktail plate, parallel to the other silver on the table. Through popular usage, a spoon may easily be substituted for a cocktail fork, unless serving fish. 

Silver for the dessert may be brought in on the plate or laid on the table just before it is served. The water glass or goblet is placed above the tip of the dinner knife. If other glasses are used, they are placed to the right of the water glass or in a line slanting from the goblet to the right. Bread and butter plates are placed above the tips of the forks, in line with the water glasses. Bread and butter spreader may be placed in a variety of ways, laid on the top or right side of the bread and butter plate with the blade toward the center of the plate, or diagonally across the top of the plate. Salt and pepper containers may be placed at either end of the table within easy reach of the guests; If Individual sets are used, they may be placed for each cover or between every two covers. The cream and sugar bowl may be put on the table; the latter is always filled with lump sugar if to be used for a hot beverage. If coffee is to be served only with, or after, the dessert course, the cups and saucers and creamer and sugar bowl are brought on with the course they are to accompany. — Madera Daily Tribune, 1934

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