A Literary Tea Salon

This past winter, a friend and I decided we’d love to offer talks on a variety of subjects at the Graber Olive House. Earlene Freeman and I regularly speak on etiquette, dining history, and vintage clothing, but we wanted to expand our horizons a bit. We wanted to not only host talks and seminars, but to also serve afternoon tea as refreshment. Little did we know, the Victorians came up with the idea back in 1893 and called these talks with tea served, “Literary Tea Salons.” Picking up my unread, thirty year old copy of a book on afternoon teas, I was surprised to read this passage below... 

Defining “A Literary Tea Salon”

The upper echelons of Victorian society were great patrons of the arts, and have lofty intellectual affectations. They gathered in each other's homes at tea time for musicals, book readings and lectures. Percy Bysshe Shelley is quoted as saying, “Teas, where small talk dies in agonies.” But that hardly seems the case. As proof, read this item from the society pages of a Philadelphia newspaper in 1893 –

“Mrs. John Sherwood, that interesting and indefatigable old lady, is giving a series of lectures on fashionable subjects in the most elegant parlors of the city. She gathers the cream of the beau monde about her. Mrs. John Sherwood thoroughly understands her listeners. They want the café frappé of ideas on all subjects, and she gives them just what they ask for, beaten very light and frothy indeed.

“In contrast to the charming whipped cream of Mrs. Sherwood are the intense, original dramatic lectures of Mrs. Florence Williams. She dissects Balzac with the keenest knife of criticism, and takes one into the innermost darkness of Dantean imagination. She has the head and deep tones of a man. She stirs one's interest and makes one think. Her audiences are not as large as Mrs. Sherwood's, but they are made up of cleverer people.”

Your own salon need not be nearly so pretentious. Considering meeting with a group of friends on a regular basis, perhaps rotating homes, to informally discuss current books, films and music. Enjoy the company, gossip a little, and of course, have a great tea. – From Angela Hynes’ “Tea Time Treasury”

Maura J. Graber is the Blog Site Editor and Curator for Traditions and Tea at Georgia Belle et Cie