An Elegant Dinner Party, Indeed

I've got a very busy weekend coming up, starting tonight with the Etiquette Dinner for the Young Entrepreneurs Business Week students -- all 77 of them, plus their mentors. They've been on campus all week, though I admit I know nothing about the program except that it's for high school students who are interested in business. Tonight is the final event of their camp, and I'm as nervous as I was last time I did this. Again, I'm the instructor, and this time it took extra preparation because...well...I know about etiquette in general, but nothing about business etiquette. I met with a faculty member from our B-school, who lent me a book. Of course, reading the book made me MORE nervous, because there is more to remember than I possibly could, and I don't want to say anything incorrect.

I think I'll start small, and maybe try to get them to stop chewing gum. That would be a tremendous start. Then I'll focus on wearing clothing that covers your underpants. That holds for men and women both, I think. How to greet someone in Iran? That can wait until later. Maybe I'll have them ask George W. Bush about that sometime.

So, since the knitting on the Minnesota Trip Top is pretty dull right now, and not worth photographing, I decided I'd show you the china that's now sitting in my basement. I don't have a catalog of all the pieces here, but know that I could have a very fancy dinner party for about 20 people, and nobody would be eating off of our "everyday" plates. No. Not at our house.

The oldest pieces, I think, are French, by Haviland. (At least I think Limoges is in France.) This is "The Princess" pattern I mentioned the other day. I believe it belonged to my great-grandmother, but I can't find a date on it. I'm guessing it's pre-WW1.



There's a bunch of Royal Bavarian (Hutschenreuther Gelb), but I can't find a photo of it online. I also don't have a date on that, but think it must be pre-WW2, since I'm not sure that much china was coming out of Germany to the US after 1945 or so.

Then, there are tea cups and saucers (and maybe other pieces, but I haven't opened all the boxes) in the "Granny" pattern frm Booths in England. As far as I can tell, this china was made between 1930 and 1946, though I'm guessing closer to 1930 since it seems very art deco to me. I can't find a photo of a tea cup, so here's a plate:



Finally, there are lots of pieces of Fostoria, with Versailles Etching in Topaz. They're American-made, and there is a somewhat salacious family story that goes along with them, about some family member marrying the nursemaid after his wife died. There are lovely crystal plates, some goblets, a huge platter (probably 19"), and probably some other pieces.





There was a lot more than this, but it got smashed in shipping from Michigan to California after my maternal grandmother died in 1991.

No, we don't have a China cabinet.

Wait. You came to see knitting? I don't have a good progress photo, so go look over here at one of the most amazing works of lace knitting I've ever seen.