Why Porcelain Replaced Sugar Paste as a Table Decoration

by Grace Elliot

In the 18^th century,  the cost of throwing a banquet could be ruinous. If you were an aristocrat who wanted to impress, then an impressive display along the center of the table was de rigor.

A table setting more typical of the early 17th century

The displays started off life in the 17^th century as impressive symmetrically arranged pyramids of decadently exotic foods, decorated with exotic flowers and foliage. These were in place at the beginning of the meal, with the purpose of being talking points for the guests. But as time went on, the arrangements became increasingly elaborate, and started to demand specialists skills from the chefs involved.

These arrangements running along the center of the banquet table were described as: “A complex marriage of the arts of the silversmith, the potter and the pastry cook.”

A typical sugar work construction

By the 18^th century the confectioner was expected to link individual elements on the table to provide a harmonious arrangement along the length of the table; in other words the display had to have a theme. One substance that leant itself well to being modelled and colored to make attractive displays was sugar work.

Confectioners began to come into their own, by creating detailed, whimsical scenes so as to satisfy the guests need for novelty. Indeed, the most popular table decorations were miniature landscapes and gardens. These fantastical creations were amazingly detailed and often contained hedges, walkways, building, flower borders and tiny figures in scale to the creation.

“All the geniuses of the age are employed in designing new plans for desserts. The Duke of Newcastle’s’ last was a baby Vauxhall [Gardens] illuminated with a million little lamps of various colors.”  Horace Walpole. 1750.

An aerial plan of Vauxhall Gardens

Six years after Walpole wrote this, Duke of Norfolk topped that creation with a park scene complete with a water feature and ornamental dolphins spouting water.

However, when banquet halls were lit by candles, they were apt to get rather hot, which caused the sugar work to melt. To circumvent this, the once edible table displays were supplement with non-edible materials such as ground glass, wax, cardboard, and colored sand. This made for added realism, and even though these displays were no longer designed to be eaten (as in the early days) they rarely survived the evening unscathed.

The cost of creating these designs was astronomical, as it required highly skilled craftsmen to create them. This, and the fact that the creations were single use only, meant it was inevitable they would eventually go out of vogue.

An example of unglazed Sevres porcelain figurines

In the late 18^th century the development of fine porcelain had reached a point whereby it started to replace sugar work for table decorations. The fine porcelain flowers could last an awful lot longer than sugar ones. And unglazed biscuit porcelain, which Sevres used to create delicate decorative figurines, had an attracted matt shimmer than mimicked a sugary surface. And so it was that porcelain came to replace sugar paste, at least when it came to sumptuous table decorations.

17th Century Trade

by Katherine Pym
The East India Company almost died under the reign of Cromwell. The dour religion disallowed many things. Gold and silver did not help the ‘saints’ into heaven.

Calicoes from India were not allowed during the Commonwealth. Only dark and homespun woolens prevailed. Spices brought about the fall of man, so little sold in England. The East India Company was forced to trade spices for other goods in the foreign markets. Pepper traded for coral in Italy sold in India at a 90% profit.

It brought the Dutchman Company, called: VOC or United East Indian Company, into power. They took advantage of England’s weakened Navy and merchant ships to increase holdings in the Far East. In Persian waters, Dutch merchant ships outnumbered the English four to one. The Dutch gained control of one port after the other. After the English Civil Wars, Cromwell went to war with the Dutch. In the South Seas a battle completely destroyed Pulo Run Island’s nutmeg industry.

English merchant ships were virtual warships that carried cannon and shot. If the crew survived periods of calm in the seas, scurvy, or the treacherous waters off the Cape of Good Hope, they invariably fought the Dutch, and other sundries as pirates, to gain ports of call where they could trade. This continued until after Charles II regained the throne.

Enter the Portuguese Infanta, Catherine of Braganza in 1662. Portugal had been in the South Seas trade industry for well over one hundred years. Her dowry brought a wealth of cash, artisans, new designs in furniture, and ports of call in India. They included stations in the Far East, warehouses called factories, counting houses, and residences.
 
Her dowry ship to England used sugar for ballast.

My resources indicate tea was introduced in England about 1660 by Thomas Garway. He felt it preserved one’s health until old age, but it was expensive—10 shillings per pound with the (England's) East India Company the sole right to import it. Called China tea, it was transported in square wooden boxes lined with lead. The new queen, Catherine of Braganza gave tea popularity. She felt the quality of water in England terrible. Her first drink when she arrived was a horn of ale. She shook her head, and asked for ‘tee’.

Along with the new ports of call came a plethora of new items from the South Seas. Porcelain made its original entry to Europe through the Crusaders. Queen Elizabeth I was given by Lord Burghley a ‘poringer of white porselyn, and a cup of greene porselyn’. She also wore ‘an armlet of pearls and enclosed thereof a clock’. But few others enjoyed such riches. 

When Catherine of Braganza came to England, food was eaten out of bowls and trenchers, liquid slurped from horn cups, tankards, two-handled cups, or posset pots (generally called dishes). These were made of earthenware, wood, or tough leather. Porcelain for the general public did not really hit England’s shores until after King James II went into exile.

King William and Queen Mary brought porcelain with them when they came to England to rule. Europe, who had been the recipient of Dutch trading for years, received a further taste for tea, sipped from porcelain, and served from lacquer-ware.

As time marched toward the end of the 17^th Century, shiploads of 250,000 porcelain pieces at a time were brought to England. No longer were the habits of good Englishmen as they had been during the Restoration. Breakfasts were then a dish of new beer, bread, Cheshire cheese, or gruel served with a heavy meat. In early 18^th Century the Tatler stated a breakfast of  ‘tea and bread and butter…have prevailed of late years.’

Even though Catherine never gave Charles II an heir, she brought to England a new way of living with the finer things of life. England’s taste became more dignified and refined.

For more information on England and trade, please see my novel, Twins. It takes place in London 1661. It is a study of trade and Catholicism in an overwhelming Protestant city.

You can find it and my other works at the Nook and amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Katherine-Pym/e/B004GILIAS 

My many thanks go to Richer than Spices by Gertrude Z. Thomas.