The pleasures of the table reached new heights in the 18th century as explorers brought back all sorts of new food discoveries from around the world. With exotic fruits, vegetables, and spices, many new recipes were created. The table also became visually more exciting and elaborate.
Ceramics were a very potent statement of wealth, taste, and disposable income. Dinnerware was purchased by piece, rather than by place setting, and plates made up the majority (a gentry-level dinner service might use 250-400 pieces). The most elite households had several different patterns, each with a very specific use. Coffee and tea wares were usually an entirely different design from the dinner service. A hostess could express herself through the complexity and multiplicity of her dinnerware. And there was a certain competition for having the newest styles.
Popular china of the day moved from cheerful delftware to salt-glazed stoneware and later, Wedgwood’s uniquely shaped and colored pieces that might resemble pineapples or pears. With the beginning of the industrial revolution in the world of ceramic production, new materials became available and fashionable. New stoneware shapes defied the limitations of the potter’s wheel, and new colorful glazes offered realistic-looking fruit- and vegetable-shaped dishes.
Matched sets of sterling flatware came into general use in the early 18th century and have remained an important expression of taste and gentility. A middle-class hostess wanting fine wares for her tea table might have been persuaded by the silversmith to melt down her grandmother’s old silver cup to create a new rococo piece.
Textiles including napkins and tablecloths were very expensive, so to have linen napkins was a real status symbol. Linens were often locked up or marked with initials. Tea would be served on a flat table with linens on it, creased to show the hostess’s wealth to own a press. Often footmen would roll up the table cloth for dessert.
In the homes of wealthy Virginians, the meal ended with a grand dessert pyramid—tiers of glittering footed glasses that contained wine jellies, dates, and other sweetmeats. This elaborate arrangement was often topped with the most coveted of fruits, a pineapple— rare, imported, and so expensive that some hostesses could only rent them. Nevertheless, her guests would be delighted with this ultimate sign of hospitality.
Isn’t it time you made your next party enchanting? WILLIAMSBURG offers hundreds of wonderful entertaining wares inspired by our love and appreciation for the art of the dinner table. Let us help you set the table . . . and set the mood.