inorganic block podcast: what's for dinner?

What’s For Dinner? Tableware and Traditions in the 18th Century, with Leslie B. Grigsby, Senior Curator of Ceramics & Glass at Winterthur

As you can imagine, based on the title, the topic for this talk potentially is quite a large one. To make the discussion a bit more bite-sized, the focus is on 18th-century dining traditions in America and Britain, and the presentation is divided into several main themes: Dinnerware Acquisition; The Timing of Meals; Orchestrating Dinners, by Course; The Evolution of Meal Service; and Cookery Books & Foods.  

Much of the conversation focuses on furnishing “elegant” dinner tables, for which documentary evidence is more plentiful. (Consideration of dining in less wealthy homes, those of underrepresented people, and/or those where residents are neither British nor British colonial, must wait for another day.) In response to the quantities of ceramics recorded in early documents and found among the archaeological record, English and Chinese wares are the main types mentioned in this discussion.