The
Aesthetic Kitchen – Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Patience – Oscar Wilde
As early as the spring of 1882, ads
for aesthetic cretonnes and calicos
started appearing. The Gilbert
and Sullivan comedic opera Patience had opened a year earlier in April 1881 and
the main aesthete Oscar Wilde arrived in America in January 1882. Ladies had already been exposed to embroidery
images of the aesthetes in the October 1881 issue of the Art Amateur and
placed them on crazy quilts. Gilbert and
Sullivan productions must of had a close
association with fabric printers as several
of their early operas were featured on printed cotton – HMS Pinafore,
Patience and the Mikado – and used in quilts.
In the fall of 1882, and continuing
trough the summer of 1883, nearly identical articles describing the Aesthetic
Kitchen were found in newspapers
throughout the country describing a chintz, bearing figures form the
opera of “Patience” in soft aesthetic colors to be used for curtains.
The fabric in the article may be
the same one found on my Oscar Crazy Quilt and in the two museum crazy quilts
featuring the same fabric.
The image above features the
appliqued Oscar from my CQ, plus images from the same fabrics used in CQs
housed at the Met and BFA museums. Ads offering Aesthetic Cretonnes and Calicos. An aesthete holding a pot of flowers, from
another one of my CQs, and the embroidery design found in the Art Amateur. An excerpt from the Aesthetic Kitchen.
April
& May 1882 – Ads for Aesthetic Cretonnes & Calicos
The Portland Daily Press, Portland,
Me. Page 3, April 11, 1882
West-Jersey Pioneer, Bridgeton, NJ,
Page 4, May 11, 1882
The
Aesthetic Kitchen 1882-1883
Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois,
Thursday, October 12, 1882
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis,
Missouri , Saturday, October 21, 1882
The Cresset from Clay Center,
Kansas, November 4, 1882
Cherryvale Globe
and Torch,
Cherryvale, Kansas,
Friday, November 3, 1882
Chautauqua Springs Spy, Chautauqua,
Kansas , Friday, November 3, 1882
Saturday Evening Mail, Terre Haute,
Vigo County, November 11, 1882
Aurora Daily Express, November 25,
1882
Los Angeles Herald, December 29,
1882
Pacific Rural Press, March 10, 1883
Juniata Sentinel and Republican,
Mifflintown, PA, Wednesday, July 25, 1883
The News and Herald, Winnsboro,
SC, Thursday, August 9, 1883
Excerpts
from the Aesthetic Kitchen:
“Say, is not my kitchen
pretty?” It was indeed, prettier than I
ever imagined a kitchen could be made,
Pretty china was displayed on shelves, brackets, and in a tiny corner
cupboard Japanese scrolls, fans and plates hung on the walls, and there was
nothing about the room suggestive of cooking except an innocent-looking little
"Florence Favorite" oil stoves, which
stood
on a
box curtained with chintz, bearing printed figures from the opera
of
"Patience" in soft aesthetic colors.
A breakfast table stood at one side
of the room
– which was
little larger than a hall bedroom – a
pretty dressing-case occupied one corner, a washstand stood in the other,
and the only remaining corner was filled by a small wardrobe. “But where do
you keep
things? Where are your kitchen utensils
– your
kettles, tins and broilers?”
With a
smile my friend pulled aside the curtain which hung below the oil stove, and
there in a box were
all the utensils necessary in cooking. Further investigation revealed the fact
that the dressing case was only used to hold groceries, while the washstand
concealed
the tin dishpan,
soap, etc. Market baskets, tea, towels, work aprons and
the like were stowed away in the wardrobe.
