A Most Unusual Colonial Dinner

A reproduction, Williamsburg sterling Sucket fork and spoon, needed for eating a British Tudor Era and American Colonial treat known as “wet suckets” or just “Sucket.” Wet suckets were candied or gingered fruits and fruit peel – usually prepared with oranges or other citrus or seasonal fruits. These were served in a delightful sugary liquid syrup, made of honey and water. By the early 17th century, sugar and rosewater were used to make the syrup. It was proper to eat with the forked-end first, then switch to using the spoon-end to enjoy the syrup remaining in the dish.

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Host Continues a Dinner Party While His House Burns

There is a familiar saying that a lady should be mistress of herself, although china fall, but to be master of himself and his dinner-table while his house is in flames is a degree of self-control granted to few. Grace Ellery Channing, in her book, “The Sisters of a Saint,” tells of a certain gentleman of Colonial times who appears to have been endowed with even that measure of Puritan self-repression.

The Royal Commissioners, then In Boston, were bidden to a dinner on Christmas eve at the stately Bristol residence of John Wentworth, a man of great natural parts and of a noble. and lofty bearing. The table, set forth with old plate and damask, was loaded with good cheer of all kinds. The host gave the customary signal for the dinner to be served in the words:

“Friends, you see your dinner!” As the visitors’ lips opened to make the response demanded by etiquette, a servant rushed in with the announcement that the house was on fire. Sternly bidding the startled guests to sit down, John Wentworth commanded the servants to take out the tables and set them upon the lawn; then the chairs were also removed.

“The air will be keen outside. Bring hither the wraps,” said John Wentworth. But the flames had already consumed them. “Bring whatever you can find, then!” and the servants returned with their arms heaped with curtains and table-cloths, and these strange wraps were hastily donned by the company.

“To the tables,” commanded Wentworth, and at the word the panic-stricken guests trooped forth from the now blazing house and seated themselves about the table upon the wintry lawn. The host repeated the greeting. “And a very good dinner we see!” was the tremulous response. 

In vain the guests essayed nervously to eat and drink; fitful attempts at gayety died away in the ever-increasing roar of flames; but Wentworth kept up an easy flow of conversation, pressing upon his guests the various dainties with all the concern of a man who had naught weightier upon his mind.

Now and again the sound of a falling beam would be echoed by a falling glass from some shaking hand. As the last glass shivered to the ground it was answered by a dull crash; the last wall of the house sank and fell. Wentworth did not turn his head.– Sausalito News, 1899

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Cocktail Party Etiquette Tips

Cocktail parties were popular throughout most of the 20th century. They are a fun way to entertain without serving a sit-down dinner.– “At a small casual party for intimate friends the host or a man friend usually mixes the drinks. The food is customarily limited to snacks, dips, and appetizers which can be handled without messing the fingers. These are passed by the hostess at the beginning of the party and then placed conveniently for guests to help themselves.”
Photo source, Pinterest

The cocktail party has several advantages, for both the hostess and the guest. It is in formal, it normally has a time limit, and people can circulate and talk to the friends they most want to talk to, and many more guests can be accommodated than at a buffet or seated meal. At a small casual party for intimate friends the host or a man friend usually mixes the drinks. The food is customarily limited to snacks, dips, and appetizers which can be handled without messing the fingers. These are passed by the hostess at the beginning of the party and then placed conveniently for guests to help themselves.

For the larger party comprising people who may not know others, the host and hostess have to play a more active part; it is advisable, therefore, to have help at the bar if possible, and in the kitchen, too, if hot hors d'oeuvres are planned. The food, small in portion, should never be sweet; usually it is highly seasoned or is made up of such items as anchovies, sharp cheese, and olives. Good drinks, good food, compatible company, and sufficient room to circulate are the requisites for a good cocktail party.

For the really large affair, held when the main meal is eaten in the middle of the day and the guests may be coming some distance, a buffet is necessary. The menu can be simple, but hearty enough to substitute for a meal, with food that will keep fresh over the period of the party. A well-balanced plan would include one or more hot dishes, as well as cold meats, cheeses, relishes, a spread, and a variety of food that can be eaten with the fingers.

COCKTAIL PARTY CHECKLIST

INVITATIONS— 

Mail or phone. The time is usually somewhere between 5 and 8 P.M. up less it is a come-when-you-can and stay-as-long-as-you-like buffet plan.

MUSIC— 

Some find this helpful as a background, particularly at the beginning of a party, but many people find it disturbing. Ashtrays should be large and plentiful. If arrangements can be made to have them emptied regularly, so much the better. For tables that do not have an alcohol-proof finish, a liberal supply of coasters should be available. Place small tables next to chairs so that guests can sit down with their drinks.

GLASSES— 

It is good to have on hand twice as many as your guest list. 

ICE CUBES– Start freezing these at least a day ahead, to fill ice buckets, or else buy the cubes in quantity. Use only fresh ice for old ice absorbs tastes and odors.

FOOD— 

Many foods can be prepared well ahead and sealed in airtight wrapping for the refrigerator or freezer.

NAPKINS, SERVIETTES, AND HAND TOWELS— 

Have plenty of the gay paper cocktail napkins on the food and drink tables and an extra supply in reserve. Hand towels of soft absorbent paper, which seem to be preferred to dainty linen ones, should be well supplied in all bathrooms and powder rooms.

COCKTAILS— 

Follow a tested recipe and use a jigger for measuring, unless you are an expert guesser. Stir, rather than shake, all drinks made with clear liquors, such as Martinis or Manhattans. Martinis can be made somewhat in advance and placed in a refrigerator. The ice is added later so that the cocktail is not diluted. Shake all cocktails that contain ingredients which are harder to blend, like Daiquiris, Bloody Marys, and whisky sours. Pre-chill the glasses – this makes a big difference. Use lots of ice – but never twice. There is nothing worse than a lukewarm drink that was meant to be cold. For drinks like a Tom Collins, as a rule, sugar, fruit juice, and ice are put in the glass first, and then liquor is added. For a carbonated drink, like a gin and tonic, add ice, liquor, then the mix.

For those who do not like cocktails there are many alternatives, besides the traditional serving of whisky or sherry. Punch and eggnog are two favorites, and if you do not have your own recipes for these, any good liquor or wine shop will provide you with them. You might try a “cheese and wine” party, or make this a part of a cocktail party. Cheeses should be eaten with the fingers or with the aid of toothpicks. 

The food, with plates and napkins, and the cocktail equipment, can be set on one table. But it is better to have the bar set up on a separate table with plenty of room for service, as guests usually like to drink for a while before eating. If you have a barman, he can take orders and serve everything from the kitchen or pantry. Coffee should be ready in the kitchen, since it may be needed later in the evening.— From “Table Settings, Entertaining and Etiquette,” by Patricia Easterbrook, 1960

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

Etiquette of a Romantic Repast

Table by Mrs. William Sarnoff from the 1981 book, “The New Tiffany Table Settings” — The gold and white setting has the gilded flatware turned upside down, in the French fashion. The stemware is in the American or British fashion, and not lined up above the dinner plate. It is in a small triangular cluster. Placement of the champagne saucer is is incorrect for this setting, unless the order is with a water glass first, then a champagne, then a red or possibly rosé, or white wine. It’s possible that the soup is being served with the champagne, but that is unlikely.

The monarchical decor of the Hapsburg Court, its red velvets, its white satins, its gold laces and embroideries, and its jewels, are recalled by Mrs. William Sarnoff in this intimate dinner whose multiple richness of elements burgeons with the romance of things past.

Mrs. Sarnoff's state portrait by the court painter Winterhalter of the beautiful young Princess Elizabeth of Hungary and the Two Sicilies sets the tone. Colors are restricted to the Hapsburgs’ red and white. An antique gold lace scarf from Mrs. Sarnoff’s family decorates the satin-covered table set with “Chrysanthemum” vermeil turned down in the European fashion, gold and white “Sheffield” bone china, “Antoinette” cut crystal, and Royal Berlin birds. 

A leaf-shaped vermeil ravier holds a ruby and diamond ring tied into pearl lariats, all by Tiffany jewelry designer Angela Cummings and all reminiscent of the jewels worn by the Princess Elizabeth in her portrait. Black lacquer side tables hold a bouquet of red silk flowers and a nineteenth-century black lacquer birdcage.— The New Tiffany Table Settings, 1981

There are wine and roses and candlelight, and Viennese waltzes in the background.

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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

A Gilded Age Tiffany Table

A gilded age luxury table by Mrs.William Randolph Hearst features a sterling flatware pattern accented with inlaid copper called ‘The Aztec,” designed exclusively for her by Tiffany's in the early twentieth century. Each handle has a different Indian motif sculptured on it. The excitement of the “Far West” permeated American design in this epoch. Note the dessert utensils of just a knife and spoon. Etiquipedia would love to know the planned menu!

“The Turn of the Century”

Mrs. William Randolph Hearst 

For the Tiffany Hostesses’ Show

Mrs. William Randolph Hearst has set a table to recall with nostalgia another era-the turn of the century. In the “Mauve Era” the most elaborate of centerpieces would dominate the dinner party (Mrs. Hearst's is a monumental arrangement of fruit, vegetables, lilies, gardenias, and orchids).

On a green satin cloth she has used richly-decorated service plates Tiffany made for her many years ago, as well as a sterling flatware pattern accented with inlaid copper called ‘The Aztec,” designed exclusively for her by Tiffany's in the early twentieth century. Each handle has a different Indian motif sculptured on it. The excitement of the “Far West” permeated American design in this epoch.

In the close-up we see the detail on the intereting flatware, as well as the rococo candlesticks and Charles II covered cups flanking the center piece. The stemware is all Tiffany glass–the translucent iridescent "favrile glass" invented by Louis Comfort Tiffany. It became one of the leading elements of the “art nouveau” movement.

This whole table represents imaginative design and elegance from another era, a period of rapid growth in America's history, as well as in her economic power and cultural sophistication. — Tiffany Table Settings, 1960

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

Gilded Table Setting Etiquette

It is a shame that the Tiffany Table Settings book was not done fully in color. This table with gilded silver must have been a spectacular sight!

From “Luxury Tables” :

The White House Vermeil Collection

For four weeks Tiffany had the pleasure, courtesy of President and Mrs. Eisenhower, of showing to the public the late Margaret Thompson Biddle's collection of antique vermeil (sterling silver gilt), which had been willed to the White House. Everything from punch sets to cigarette boxes, from knight figurines to wine coolers, was included in the White House collection. 

Shown here is part of a large formal dinner table, set entirely in vermeil with the exception of the crystal goblets, which was part of the exhibition. The center footed tureen is a very famous seventeenth-century piece of silver: it was the gift of Louis XV to the Prussian Ambassador to the Royal Court. 

The artichoke finial lends an attractive accent to this handsome piece. To the left of it is one of a pair of covered tureens made by the English silversmith Paul Storr in 1806. The three-light candelabra are Sheffield (1821); the service plates, shell salt dishes, and flatware are also English, of a later period.— Tiffany Table Settings, 1960

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Etiquette of Tiffany Hostesses' Show

Etiquipedia’s initial thoughts: This is a strange order of courses for a formal, mid-century dinner. It appears to be a soup course, a fish course, a salad course and then a main course. Typical for the era would have been a soup, fish, a sorbet as palate cleanser, a main course, and then a salad. There are no dessert utensils, but at a formal dinner, these would be brought to the table with or without a finger bowl, but with the dessert plate. — Above is “A Dinner with Antique Silver, by Mrs. Charles Suydam Cutting, for Tiffany Hostesses' Show” 

Mrs. Charles Suydam Cutting has set a table that is a jewel of antique silver. She has used her own table ornaments: cigarette boxes for each place with hunting scenes sculptured in low relief; an Irish potato ring for the center of the table; columnar Irish candlesticks; cups, bowls, and all sorts of objects from the Charles II, Queen Anne, and early Georgian periods. 

She has made an unusual arrangement of pomegranates and grapes, red ampelopsis, and brown cypripedium from her greenhouses for the center decoration. Mrs. Cutting's écru fine linen cloth is embroidered with “Dixiana.” The finely monogrammed napkins are from France. She uses a simple English reproduction sterling flatware pattern, and a very plain stemware pattern. The dinner plates are white, with a subtle gold scratch-line decoration on the scalloped border.

Mrs. Cutting has grouped her antique silver objects on the table for decorative as well as for utilitarian purposes. The warm tone of the cream-colored cloth brings forth the glow of the old silver.— From Tiffany Table Settings, 1960

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

Etiquette and Tiffany’s Table Settings

This beautifully set dining table for four features elements from Tiffany’s. It is the first of the settings shown in the 1960 book, “Tiffany Table Settings.” The book was a companion offering to the women who not only participated in the yearly event, but notably to those who couldn’t attend the popular show of tabletop artistry. Etiquipedia will be featuring more from the book in the coming days, along with etiquette critiques of the late-1950’s to 1960 settings.

In 1956 Tiffany & Co., the famous Fifth Avenue jewelers and silver smiths, inaugurated an active program to present table settings of taste and imagination to the public. The purpose of this program a continual round of exhibitions-is to inspire and provoke greater interest in this area of design. When the exhibits are held, thousands of people visit Tiffany's weekly to view the settings by New York's leading hostesses and interior decorators. The store holds that a "per fect party" implies a beautiful table as well as a distinguished menu. Those who are chosen to design tables select Tiffany china, silver, and glass as accessories on their tables, combining these elements with their own furniture, linens, and antiques.

This collection of settings has not been compiled to instruct in the "book of etiquette" sense. Rather, it is hoped that the presentation of these settings will be a source of inspiration and a focus of ideas to any hostess.

There is infinite variety of design in these tables. Some of the set tings are based on the theory of switching objects created for one purpose to other uses, as well as juggling to make new combinations of color, fabric, and shape. Some of the settings are classic examples of subtle orthodox statement. Others are frankly based on fantasy.

The common denominator of good style, however, underlies all the designs, regardless of the occasion or spirit of formality or infor mality. A table set with inexpensive earthenware, for example, on a checked cotton cloth can be as enticing and appetizing as one of rare porcelain, crystal, and silver.

The editors believe that a woman is not using her own creative abilities unless she can turn her imagination to lending a fresh look to her table. It is hoped that this book will encourage a new point of view in this field of interior design. — Tiffany Table Settings, 1960

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