It’s Not Just Desserts

They say you are what you eat, but are you also what you serve it on? For diners in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, dinner and dessert tables were laid to be a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach. Dazzling displays of exotic imported ceramics and glittering, glass towers mingled with savory treats and sugared confections, impressing guests and hinting at the depth of the host’s pockets.

Dessert at this time was not the simple, single-dish conclusion we know today, but a complicated display of multiple desserts served at once, from cakes to sweetmeats, ice cream to wobbling jellies. Tabletops were a riot of colors, shapes, textures and flavors. Expensive, towering centerpieces took center stage in a course that became as much about presentation as it was about indulgence. Three examples of extravagant centerpieces from Winterthur’s collection illustrate the importance of visual impact on the dessert table and prove that diners were consuming far more than just desserts.

 

Winterthur’s cut glass sweetmeat stand, image from Arlene Palmer. Glass in Early America: Selections from the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum (Wilmington, Delaware: Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1993), 218.

With it’s delicately extending arms and elaborately faceted stem, Winterthur’s cut glass sweetmeat stand would have made a sensational focal point to any dessert table. Facet cut with diamonds and ovals, this stand would have sparkled and gleamed by candlelight, creating an eye-catching spectacle of glass and sugar. The gently swinging baskets held sugared treats, small chocolates, or preserved fruits and nuts, just waiting for guests to reach out and claim them. While dramatic glass centerpieces frequently graced eighteenth century tables and sideboards, and the cut glass sweetmeat stand or pole developed as an enticing alternative to the more traditional glass pyramid or stacked salvers.^[i] And, well over a foot tall, the monotony of a long and crowded tabletop was broken by its soaring height, cementing its place of pride and importance at the dessert table.

 

Winterthur’s assembled glacier; image courtesy Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

The three parts of Winterthur’s glacier separated; image courtesy Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

The ice cream jar or glacier was introduced in the late eighteenth century as the preferred method of serving ice cream at dessert tables and at parties.[ii] The Chinese export glacier from Winterthur’s collection is formed from three matching pieces of blue and white porcelain: the large outer pail, an inner bowl, and a cover. Chopped or crushed ice would fill the pail up to the bottom of the inset bowl, which was then filled with ice cream. More crushed ice could be placed into the lid, held in place by its vertical rim. As cookery books began to include numerous recipes for all flavors of ice cream, the proper serving equipment became an important marker of economic standing and social performance. Winterthur’s glacier represents a form of public entertainment taking place at the dessert table, from the first sight of the exotic blue and white Chinese porcelain pail to the impressive luxury of affording crushed ice and finally the dramatic reveal of the creamed concoction inside.

 

 

Winterthur’s creamware jelly mold, uncovered to display the enamel painted interior; image courtesy Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

This period was marked with such an emphasis on dessert presentation that some objects developed with the sole purpose of display. Jelly molds turned the long popular dessert into an art form. Winterthur’s two-part creamware jelly mold has a fluted, bullet-shaped “core.” Each flute is hand-painted in enamel with a colorful spray of fruits and flowers. A matching conical cover fits over the mold and rests inside the rim of the base, which is pierced by a ring of holes. Liquid jelly was poured through the holes of the inverted mold and left to set; when the mold was placed upright and the cover gently removed, the painted floral decoration was exposed through the transparent gelatin – a reveal that was no doubt sensational if done tableside. These quivering jellies were used as exquisite centerpieces, showing off the host’s confectionary skills and patience. Though instant gelatin costs less than a dollar today, early nineteenth century jellies took hours of boiling and painstaking filtering, before being flavored and colored with various fruit juices and wine.^[iii] Production turned to performance, as the subtle surprise of seeing a painted design inside a familiar dessert would have elicited admiration and praise.

 

These dramatic ceramic and glass pieces became symbols of proper elite consumption and the focal points of display. Fashionable homes were considering not only what sugared delicacies to serve their guests, but also how their tables would be arranged, decorated, and received. Taste was no longer just a matter of the mouth.

 

 

By: Rachel Asbury, WPAMC Class of 2018
Sources:

[i] Donald L. Fennimore et al., Eye for Excellence: Masterworks from Winterthur (Wilmington, Delaware: The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc., 1994), 32.

[ii] Harold D. Eberlin and Cortlandt V. D. Hubbard. “Ice Cream Jars.” The Magazine Antiques Vol. 58, no. 2 (1950): 106.

[iii] Peter Brears, Jellies and Their Moulds (Devon, England: Prospect Books, 2010), 120.