For those who love love love etiquette
“It is bad manners for a gentleman to use perfumes to a noticeable extent.” Encyclopaedia of Business and Social Forms, 1880 Old etiquette books are apparently very opinionated about a man’s toilette. When I was teaching etiquette, I taught a number of eleven and twelve year-old boys. I used to say that cologne should be used…
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Now we really are getting obscure! I’ve only been served demitasse once. On the hubster and my second anniversary, we traveled to France and had dinner in a chateau in the Loire Valley, (schmancy, I know). It was eight courses with the complimentary wines, at the end I was served a demitasse coffee with a demitasse spoon…
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My parents were always a little out of touch. My father born in 1921 and my mother in 1932, they had married late in life and then had children even later. They did things their way and it was the way of a completely different era than we were living in. When I went to my first…
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“Teas and “Kettledrums”, High Tea and Afternoon Receptions, have come to bear a strong resemblance one to another, in fact to infringe so much upon the same territory that it is very difficult at times to distinguish between them sufficiently to apply the appropriate name.” Social Etiquette by Maud C. Cooke, 1896 The Kettledrum is…
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It really is amazing just how much staff was needed to run a country home. We’re finally leaving the main house and now we’re headed outside. Coachman/ Chauffeur The coachman is in charge of the carriages and drives the family about. In a large household the first Coachman drove two horse teams and the second coachman…
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“Coffees or early teas are very fashionable of late, very charming in forming social entertainments, and have been in great demand during the two past seasons among the ladies of large cities. The custom has always been popular with the Jewish and German ladies, who entertain afternoon callers with coffee and cake.” Gems of Deportment 1880…
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Well, here we are at part three, did you imagine that there were so many jobs serving one house and one family? The Kitchen The kitchen was its own personal fiefdom run by a chef or cook. Often cooks and housekeepers might be at odds with one another and those political struggles could infect the…
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Victorian’s liked to have a tool for every purpose. Chocolate spoons were used with drinking chocolate or what we would now call hot chocolate. Victorian’s loved drinking chocolate so much there are reports of milk chocolate, dark chocolate and even white chocolate being melted and served warm. Chocolate sets also contained a muddler spoon. This was a…
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“The dining-room must be quietly but well lighted. There should be no glaring lights, but a soft radiance which is so general as to make everything clear. An electric light hanging eighteen inches above the table, or a tall lamp whose light is at about the same height, either of them well shaded, are satisfactory additions to…
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The Tea Reception, can be at home or in a public venue, but this is when tea is taken to the next level. “With this more pretentious affair, the refreshments are served in the dining-room instead of in the drawing-room or outdoors as is sometimes done at simpler teas. The hissing urn always holds the place…
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