Emily Post, doyenne of proper social conduct, was born on this day in 1873. (How rude to divulge a lady's age!)Her 1922 book Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage became the handbook of manners for decades.
Happy Birthday, Emily Post
Emily Post, doyenne of proper social conduct, was born on this day in 1873. (How rude to divulge a lady's age!)Her 1922 book Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage became the handbook of manners for decades.
Emily Post would have approved of this lovely tea party, depicted by artist Irving Wiles.
Three elegant women and a young girl anticipate the hot tea that brews in a great brass samovar. Wealthy and beautifully clad, they gather in a richly appointed interior where lamps with gaily striped shades flank a gilt-edged mirror. For the privileged, the Gilded Age of the 1880s and 1890s represented a moment of untold wealth that allowed access to international culture. Russian art, music, and customs became widely popular. Wiles recorded this setting as a night scene with loose, caressing, impressionistic brush strokes and a French-influenced flair.
Source: Richard Murray. The Gilded Age: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).
Pictured: Irving R. Wiles, 1861–1948, Russian Tea, about 1896, oil, 48 1/8 x 36 1/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William T. Evans.