Plat

“ When I opened my eyes I would tip the plate in one direction and another, so as to make the molasses spread all over it, in the full belief that there would be more of it and that would last longer if spread out in this way. So strong are my childish impressions of those Sunday morning feasts that if would be pretty hard for any one to convince me that there is not more molasses on a plate when it is spread all over the plat than when it occupies a little corner—if there is a corner in a plate. ”

“ He took the plate gravely, deposited a cent upon it, and solemnly handed it back. Then, with a half-perceptible wink at his gaping neighbor, and his droll smile breaking for a brief moment the expressionless expanse of his face, he composed himself for the rest of the service. ”

“ Sprat have satisfied their material tastes by that equal division of fat and lean which has made their MENAGE immortal; and have, after the elegant tradition, 'licked the platter clean,' they can - thanks to modern artists in clay - feast their intellectual tastes upon excellent delineations of natural objects.
This reflection prompts me to transfer my attention from the blue plate to the forlorn but cheerfully painted vase on the sideboard. ”

“ It is well known, as an able antiquarian [443] has remarked, to what an excess the luxury of the table was carried among the ancients, and how much they surpassed us in the dimensions, the massiveness, the workmanship, the quality, and the variety of their drinking apparatus.
Many persons, however, seem chiefly to have valued their plate as a mark of their wealth and magnificence ”

“ Modern plate is seldom of even moderately good design. The object of the manufacturer seems to be to crowd upon it as lumpy an embossed ornament as possible, to make it massive, and remind us of so much per ounce. ”

“ Here, won't you take this one, right in the centre? ... that's where the platter is put. And listen: you know what's real eating, you do ... you give the others an appetite ... I'll let you have all you can eat ... ”

“ A table-service all of simple white, of graceful forms, even though not of china, if arranged with care, with snowy, well-kept table-linen, clear glasses, and bright American plate in place of solid silver, may be made to look inviting ”

“ The ornamentation of buttons, spoons, tableware, and other articles of silver was already practised when the demand for the book-plate arose, so that there were skilful men ready to turn their attention to this new branch of their art. ”

“ Ah!—on your bonnet-box, in a plate ordinarily used as a card receiver, and sugar, butter, et cetera, and et cetera lying around almost anywhere, and the figs, oranges and homely, but necessary bread, where are they? ”

“ In some houses, new and stale bread, at discretion, are provided; and many a stripling, lean and hungry as a greyhound, with a large appetite and a small purse, calls for a small plate, without vegetables, and fills up the craving crannies with an immoderate proportion of the staff of life, while the reckoning simply stands, “one small plate 6d., one bread 1d., one waiter 1d.;” ”

“ Amongst the finest examples of plates before 1650 may be named the series of three, in different sizes, engraved for Jean Bigot, Sieur de Sommesnil (the head of a Norman family of famous book-lovers) . ”

“ But drinking largely sobers us again.
are found on an old American plate.
On a recent New York plate,—
Far more seemly were it for thee to have thy Study full of Books than thy purse full of money. Lilly.
On a Maine plate,—
Who learns and learns but does not what he learns,
Is one who plows and plows but never sows.
————
Weigh well each thought, each sentence freely scan,
In Reason’s balance try the works of man.
Be bias’d not by those who praise or blame,
Nor, Servile, Yield opinion to a name.
On a recent Boston plate,—
Un bon livre est un bon ami. ”

“ The gold or silver plate is less remarkable for its weight than for the brightness and curious workmanship; the taste is gratified without the help of foreign and costly luxury; the size and number of the cups of wine are regulated with a strict regard to the laws of temperance ”

“ Few things add more to the neat and comfortable appearance of a dinner-table than well-polished plate; indeed, the state of the plate is a certain indication of a well-managed or ill-managed household. ”

“ Modern Plate in the East.—Though little plate of real artistic merit is now made in Europe, in the East among the Moslem and Hindu races there still survive some real taste in design and skill in execution. Delhi, Benares, Lucknow, Cutch and other places in India and Kashmir still produce a quantity of beautiful silver and gold work—chiefly ewers, basins, rose-water sprinklers, salvers, coffee-pots and the like. These are of graceful form, covered with rich repoussé work, or more often with very delicate chased patterns. ”

“ COMMON USE OF PLATE IN THE TIME OF HENRY VIII.
A writer in the early part of the sixteenth century tells us that in his time, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, the luxury of the table had descended even to citizens, and that there were few whose tables were not daily provided with spoons, cups, and a salt-cellar of silver. Those of a higher sphere affected a greater profusion of plate; but the quantity accumulated by Cardinal Wolsey, though the precious metals are now so copious, still continues to excite our surprise. ”

“ The plate of the late Mr. George W. Childs has the following motto whose appropriateness is evident at once,—The pen is mightier than the sword. Above this a second motto of equal appropriateness is given,—Nihil sine labore.
On the plate of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Per ampliora ad altiora is given upon a ribbon under a beautiful drawing of the “chambered nautilus.” ”

“ Pictorial plates, introducing bits of landscape, interiors of libraries, or allegorical subjects, are sought for, as are plates which are accepted as particularly good types of the different styles. In addition to these technical reasons for valuing one plate more highly than another may be given others which will appear more reasonable perhaps to the general reader. All articles belonging to the noted men of the past have a certain antiquarian value greater than attaches to the kindred belongings of their contemporaries of lesser or no fame. ”

“ By a law of Congress, patents can be had upon lost papers, by taking a copy of the warrant from the Register, or a copy of the platt and certificate from the surveyor, and satisfying the officer of the loss of the papers by his own oath, or otherwise. Massie made affidavit on the copy of the platt and certificate, that the original, of which that was a copy, had been filed in the War Office, and that it had been lost or destroyed. The omission to state that the warrant and assignment accompanied the plat, and were destroyed with it. He got them all in order to procure a patent. ”

“ The quantity of developer necessary for a plate of a given size depends in some degree upon the size and character of the dish that is used, and is smallest when the bottom of the dish is quite flat and has no ridges or grooves. It is false economy to use too small a quantity, and it may be taken that for a quarter plate 11⁄2 oz., for a half plate 21⁄2 or 3 oz., and for a whole plate 4 oz. ”

“ Naturally no one is prepared to serve food on two hundred different dinner plates, and when many extra settings are necessary those awaiting the finishing of the previous table are already pretty hungry. ”

“ Among other directions for table, you are told not to leave your spoon in your platter; not to return back to your plate the food you have put in your mouth; not to dip your meat in the salt-cellar to salt it, but to take a little salt on your knife and put it on the meat; not to drink from a cup with a dirty mouth; not to offer to another person the remains of your pottage; not to eat much cheese; to take only two or three nuts, when they are placed before you; not to play with your knife; not to roll your napkin into a cord, or tie it in knots; and not to get intoxicated during dinner-time! ”

“ I take it however that until well into the eighteenth century people were accustomed to regard plate, other than pieces of historic interest, as a convenient way of keeping portable wealth in a form which could be easily turned into coin, and its dispersion in times of emergency when money was wanted is not surprising. ”

“ Plates ready?"
"All ready!" answered the little heart-shaped Tart Plates.
"How do I make a pretty border?" asked Mary [164] Frances, cutting the trimmings from the edge of Tart Plate with a knife held upright along the edge. ”

“ At the moment of the feast the dish or dishes containing the strong and savoury mixture are set on the middle of the table. But it is not served up till the end. Six or seven persons generally have a plate to themselves. ”

“ Gold and silver plate, especially in the shape of drinking-cups, was largely displayed in all the wealthy mansions, each household priding itself on the show which it could make of the precious metals. ”

“ If one edge of a plate of silver about the size of half a crown-piece be placed upon the tongue, and one edge of a plate of zinc about the same size beneath the tongue, and if their opposite edges are then brought into contact before the point of the tongue, a taste is perceived at the moment of their coming into contact ”

“ Never put anything by force upon any one's plate. It is extremely ill-bred, though extremely common, to press one to eat of anything.
3. If at dinner you are requested to help any one to sauce or gravy, do not pour it over the meat or vegetables, but on one side of them. Never load down a person's plate with anything. ”

“ Gilding or plates of gold or silver are applied to every available surface—to tables, chairs, footstools, and bedsteads; even silver night-urns are essential to the comfort of the fastidious plutocracy. ”

“ Their suppers are, like their dinners, various and plentiful. The table is always covered with elegant linen. Their plates for common use are often of that kind of manufacture which is called cream coloured, or queen’s ware. ”

“ A very small quantity of the precious metals will plate a large number of articles; but even with this small amount of gold, the gold-plated substances are too costly to be in general use; though it is quite common to line silver-plated articles with a thin plate of gold. ”

“ Being fortunate enough to find a plate without anybody’s card in it, you wisely seat yourself at once, and have a little leisure to look about you. Waiters, with wine-baskets in their hands, are placing decanters of sherry down the tables, at very respectable distances ”

“ Plates II to VII of the first part appear to relate to one general subject, if we can judge of this by the figures and symbols, but what that general subject is I am as yet unable to determine positively, but am of the opinion that they relate, in part at least, to the festivals and profession of the traveling merchants.
The first division of Plate II contains two figures. The one to the left, a quadruped upon a brown ground, has its hind feet upon an oblong figure, apparently a stone, holding by its fore feet to a cord which passes round the object on which its hind feet are placed. ”

“ Your plats are the most perfect things—models of tasteful cookery.”
“Je veux le croire, Mademoiselle. But I refer to the business of the palette, not of the palate. There comes a limit to welcoming praise of other people at one’s own expense.”
“If I praised a picture of yours it would be in spite of my not understanding it ”

“ When you are sent on an errand, be sure to edge in some business of your own, either to see your sweetheart, or drink a pot of ale with some brother servants, which is so much time clear gained.
There is a great controversy about the most convenient and genteel way of holding your plate at meals; some stick it between the frame and the back of the chair, which is an excellent expedient, where the make of the chair will allow it: others, for fear the plate should fall, grasp it so firmly, that their thumb reaches to the middle of the hollow ”

“ But I cannot pass without some brief notice our habit—continually, as it seems to me, gaining strength—of putting a large quantity of thought and work, annually, into things which are either in their nature necessarily perishable, as dress; or else into compliances with the fashion of the day, in things not necessarily perishable, as plate. I am afraid almost the first idea of a young rich couple setting up house in London, is, that they must have new plate. ”

“ At table, all his plate is of the most ancient make, and he drinks toasts and healths in tankards of ale that is strong enough to make a horse reel, but which he continually avows is as mild as mother’s milk, and wouldn’t hurt an infant. ”

“ Often, unless we devoured our dinner with a Transatlantic haste, the state of our plates, even before our hunger was satisfied, was such as must be guessed rather than described; the principal dish also falling such an easy prey to our tormentors as to make the expression pièce de résistance a contradiction in terms. ”

“ I should also recommend a moderate quantity of plate, and table-linen of course. These things, if taken, should be well packed in packages of convenient size; and they are none of them things that would occupy much room, or be able to much freight. Books, of course, a man should supply himself with. Even a pianoforte (if the womankind are fond of music) is not to be despised, nor pictures thrown away. ”

“ The only extra plates ever permitted are the bread and butter plates which are put on at breakfast and lunch and supper above and to the left of the forks, but never at dinner. ”

“ Put in a small quantity of water and turn the pan around so as to create a gentle current, when the precious metal, if there be any, can be easily detected,—the gold by its bright lustre, the platinum by its lead color, and both by their malleability. ”