Back before the pandemic, Etiquetteer always said that we needed some sort of party to keep us going in January after the excitement of the holiday season. Now, as Year Two of the pandemic draws to a close, Etiquetteer cannot help but remember the words of the late Crystal Allen: “Well baby, that goes double!” Perhaps that’s why Etiquetteer turned to the pages of Dame Curtsey’s Book of Novel Entertainments for Every Day of the Year for inspiration. It might also be that Etiquetteer has an important birthday coming up at the end of the month . . . Some of Dame Curtsey’s 1907 ideas can be charming, but others make any 21st-century person want to ask “What on earth was she thinking, or smoking?”
Most of Dame Curtsey’s parties can be boiled down to colorful paper decorations, novelty placecards, and guessing games — both for children and for adults. A “Dutch Supper” involves extensive use of Delft china*, orange paper doilies (“If it is possible, do not use a tablecloth,”) wooden shoes, and anything shaped like a tulip, including tulips. She also suggests serving a Dutch menu with menu cards in Dutch, “much to the mystification of the guests.”
Maybe Etiquetteer is just getting a wee bit too old and crotchety, but having to guess what’s on the menu, no matter how humorously presented, seems to tax one’s Party Spirit. For instance, for a “Rhyme Luncheon,” what do you think this little poem on the menu might represent?
I’m hard to get for I love the wet,
I’m conservative, men say.
But now I’m caught, and hither brought
I start the meal today.
If you didn’t guess “clam bouillon,” then you’re in for a disappointment. Actually, you might be in for a disappointment if you did, too.
Some of Dame Curtsey’s ideas for costume party themes, however, show delightful innovation. Her “coiffure dinner” doesn’t require anyone to come up with an entire costume, but only with headgear that suggests a personality or allegory, “a period or person.” Just stick some orange leaves and a few grapes in your hair and you’re Autumn, that sort of thing. “The funny man of the crowd had a wire bed-spring fastened on either side of his head, from which hyacinths and daffodils apparently were growing. Of course he was called ‘Spring.’”
Communities that still get cold in winter could hold a chocolate party, which Dame Curtsey calls a “chocolateier” and which Eitquetteer has seen elsewhere spelt “chocolataire.” “To be up-to-date give a ‘Chocolateier,’ for there are very few who do not like this most comforting of winter beverages.” Dame Curtsey provides a few “kinks” to improve your hot chocolate: adding cinnamon, or hot coffee, egg yolks, or whipping with an egg beater just before serving. “Serve graham wafers, brown and white bread sandwiches, candied orange peel, and ginger. Light the room with candles and have a flower or two in vases a la japonaise.” Doesn’t it sound cozy?
It is really too bad that Dame Curtsey’s ideas for January give out with Twelfth Night, which was last week. On the other hand, Etiquetteer is One of Those People who could live quite happily going from chocolateier to chocolateier every day of the year.
*Or Delft acting and appearing china. “Imitation ware is very effective and very cheap.”