If I Had My Own Blue Box:

 An Encyclopedia of Domestic Economy by Thomas Webster has an indepth section on servants from the perspective on one employing them. Within the section is this passage and chart I know some will find interesting. Please remember this applies to an English servant.

“In servants’ dress two thirds of the wages only should be spent. The remainder, left in the hands of their principal, or placed in saving’s banks to accumulate, may prove a means of comfort to them beyond comparison greater than the translent pleasure which a more expensive dress might give them. In the following tables will be found estimates sufficiently accurate to show, that with judgment in the choice of the materials, and a proper subordination of the inclination for dress to the means for obtaining it, a third part, or even more, of wages, may in most cases, be untouched, and yet the personal appearance of the servant not neglected thereby, but rather improved, inasmuch as consistency in dress is always one of the its most becoming attributes.

Table I – Wages 7l.7s

Table II Wages from 12L 12s upwards

The author discusses silverware, flatware and cutlery extensively with occasional illustration. Those areas are so very detailed, I will not attempt to choose what to clip out. Here is a list of the “Usualy articles in silver required to furnish the table”:

Cruets are just something I want to learn more about. So, I pulled this image of silver-plate to share:

I had to switch to the 1852 version of An Encyclopedia of Domestic Economy by Thomas Webster because the 1845 version I downloaded was only half there. This edition was published in London instead of New York.

I know there has been recent discussion of glassware for the table. In that light, this illustration and description is quite handy:

“Glass Used as Table Furniture – The use of glass in furniture is too well known to require much illustration. We shall confine ourselves, therefore, to an enumeration of the  various articles in common use. Mirrors have already been mentioned for chandeliers and other holders for lights in Section on Lamps. Glass for the table consists of, decanters for the usual wines, a, fig. 496; ditto for claret, b; liquor bottles, r; water jugs, c, c; pickle glasses, d; finger cups, e; custard cups, d; cruet glasses, f, g, h, I; tumblers, k, l; wine-glasses of various kinds, m, n, o, including those of green glass; butter basins, p, q, s, salad basins, &c.

Today from An Encyclopedia of Domestic Economy by Thomas Webster, published in 1845 in New York, we have some bed and bedding items.

One note –  Being written about 15 years prior, these pieces would not have been new in 1860 and in some areas could be seen as out-of-date.

There are quite a few beds shared in the book ranging from simple to draped or canopied to iron and fold-out beds.

I’m sure one of the most of interest will be this folding bed:

“The folding camp, or tressel bedstead, fig 414, is one of the cheapest made, and has the great convenience of being easily put aside to make room when folded, consisting merely of two frames connected by the sacking. When extended, it is kept open by the head-board, which has two pins that drop into holes in the side rails, with the addition of a foot-board, made in the same manner as the head-board; there is no better bedstead for men servants or young people; and being so moveable, they are easily kept clean, not requiring taking to pieces. They may be had complete for less than [ 1 pound]. If required, nothing would be easier than to add curtains, in the manner of the French bedstead. They are also made sometimes of iron.

Camp bedsteads, to fold in little room, are made sometimes of iron; but the best and most elegant are of hollow brass rods, which are particularly convenient for travelling by land or sea, and are occasionally useful in the house from being easily put away. Those of brass are about twice the price of iron ones. Couches are made on the same principle.”

In the bedroom section, this book details on several pages the types of materials used for bedding or mattresses. Starting on page 296, these include:

Feather beds stuffed with feathers – The author notes some people rub the inside of the ticking with bees wax or a combination of bees wax and soap to help decrease the dust connected with feather beds. He also says the ticking must be as close, thick and stout as possible. Feather beds are softer than the mattresses they often sit on, which follow.

Mattresses “are firmer kids of beds, usually placed under the feather beds, but sometimes preferred to the latter for sleeping upon, as being less soft, and not so relaxing. They consist of a bag of canvass or ticking stuffed with various materials; but as these are not intended to be moved or shaken, they are fixed in their places by packthread put through, and tufts fixed at equal distances: the edge or border of the mattress is formed square. The materials with which mattresses are filled are usually horsehair, wool, flock, millpuff (a kind of coarse wool), chaff, straw, ulva-marina, cocoanut fibre, or coils of elastic wire. Hay and chaff are occasionally employed.”

Descriptions of each are detailed by the author. He also discusses alternate beds being introduced – the French paillasse “a very thick mattress stuffed hard with drawn wheat straw”, an air bed of India rubber invented in 1813 and a “Dr. Arnott’s water bed” intended as invalid furniture.

I am greatly enjoying An Encyclopedia of Domestic Economy by Thomas Webster, published in 1845 in New York. I hope you are enjoying the pieces I am sharing.

One note –  Being written about 15 years prior, these pieces would not have been new in 1860 and in some areas could be seen as out-of-date.

The book has several dressing tables and wash stands, some of which I really like.

 This portable water-closet is one I thought especially worth sharing:

“Portable water-closets are useful where fixed ones cannot be had, and in case of sickness; as they may be placed in a dressing-room, or even a bedroom. If ill constructed, they are a nuisance; butt we can recommend the following , patented by Wiss, near Charing Cross, London. Fig 454, a, a, is the cistern for water, surrounding the three sides of a box which holds the pan, b; the cistern is filled by lifting up a small lid, c, and pulling the handle of an engine, by which the water is forced into the pan through the washer. This water, by its weight, opens the hinged valve at the bottom of the pan, and carries the contents into a pail, e, placed beneath. This pail has a cover with a projection that dips into a groove containing a little water, that effectually prevents any effluvia from coming out. The pail can be removed to empty it. This apparatus many be made in a variety   of forms; as a seat, an arm-chair, a commode, settee, &c. The   same moveable box, with the cistern and pan, may be used without a pail, and be more complete, where there is the convenience of connecting it with a pipe to go into a drain or cesspool. In this case there is a curved tube, f, to be joined to the pipe, which, being always full of water up to the dotted line, stops any smell from ascending.

 Today I have more items from An Encyclopedia of Domestic Economy by Thomas Webster, published in 1845 in New York.

One note –  Being written about 15 years prior, these pieces would not have been new in 1860 and in some areas could be seen as out-of-date.

When I first looked at these towel and wash stands in the bedroom section, I noticed fig 434 looked like what I had always thought of as a quilt stand. This is something I will need to look into better. My next thought was about how useful one of these would be at an event. I prefer to drape the clothing I’ve taken off to air out or in some cases dry out due to the weather being hot and humid or wet. I often end up draping my cloths over a chair. One of these would be so much more useful. After all that is what these are for.

“Towel and wash stands. 1234 – Towel and cloth airers. Fig 434 is the form at present most in fashion for towels. Fig. 435 is more convenient for airing clothes; from the mode in which the feet are fixed on, it will stand whether open or shut. Fig. 436 is still more convenient, as by means of a very simple hinge I may be made to fold backward, and in several different positions. Fig. 437 represents the hinge, which consists of only two strips of leather nailed on as in the woodcut: it may be made by any carpenter: there are four such hinges.”

I’ve been reading through An Encyclopedia of Domestic Economy by Thomas Webster lately. Published in 1845 in New York this book is packed full of useful and interesting pieces of information. I thought I would share some of those I find either particularly interesting or potentially useful.

One note –  Being written about 15 years prior, these pieces would not have been new in 1860 and in some areas could be seen as out-of-date.

This box-stool is something I would love to duplicate either for use at home or an event. It is a box with the top padded for sitting. The inside has a grid pattern used for hanging caps from. The text says “Fig. 432 is a box-stool, having the top stuffed to sit on, while the inside may hold caps, or other articles of dress, pinned to the girt in the lid.”

Quite similar is this traveling box meant for caps or bonnets. “Traveling boxes, for caps or bonnets, have a frame with a narrow girth crossed within, as fig. 463, to the underside of the which the caps are pinned, so as not to touch the sides, or each other. Frills, laces, and light articles of that kind are fixed upon the upper side of this network. Care should be taken to carry the boxes always top uppermost, and the caps will arrive at their destination without the slightest injury. The outside of the box is covered with some water-proof substance, as painted canvas.”

While looking at pieces which store caps and bonnets, I want to share these parts of a wardrobe meant for storing bonnets and caps. “Fig. 455 represents one of the simplest and cheapest wardrobes, being a press with folding doors and sliding shelves. At the bottoms is a deep drawer for holding bonnets and caps; these are best placed upon bonnet-holders within the drawer, fig. 456, or hung on hooks fixed in the inside of the drawers, as in fig. 457.”