The Aesthetic Kitchen – Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Patience – Oscar Wilde

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.