After what feels like years of doing very little and months’ of writers block, I have decided to write about something that I love; something that I simply cannot start my day without. Coffee.

It is true what people say; by the time you have drunk a few thousand cups of it, you cannot live without it. I represent a large majority of people who simply cannot function without a LARGE cup of coffee in the morning: If you walk down any high street in the UK, you’ll pass at least four coffee shops, packed full of people chatting, catching up with friends or enjoying the simple pleasure that a cappuccino can bring (once the pandemic is over of course). British society has been transformed by coffee and the culture of coffee drinking.

But, where did this drink come from and how has it become such an integral part of British society?

Coffee was the new and exotic commodity to enter England in the seventeenth century.  It came from the middle east and received a rather successful reception in England from those in high society.  Its initial appeal was that it presented as novel and exotic and thus highly fashionable!

The pressure on those in high court circles to overtly over spend on luxury items to conspicuously display their social status made coffee a most sought after commodity. Through mass consumption, the middling urbanities also purchased it as a luxury commodity to emulate their social superiors. In one way or another, coffee was the most sought after drink in the seventeenth century.

The first description of coffee drinking and the social rituals surrounding it, is in the writings about the Ottoman Empire. The description reads:

‘The Turks have a very good drink, by them called Chaube (coffee) that is almost as black as ink and very good in illness chiefly of the stomach.’

Comparisons were continuously drawn between the ritual of coffee consumption by the Turks and the alcohol centred rituals in the taverns and alehouses of England. The early English coffeehouses were in fact referred to as ‘Turkish Alehouses’.

‘Turks in their coffee houses much resemble our tavern… will labour all day long to be drunk at night in a tippling feast.’

The other great appeal of coffee was that it could be drunk in a public setting in a manner akin to alcoholic beverages but could be consumed without fear of intoxication! It had the appeal of beer without the fearful association of unreasonable illicit sexuality that tainted the other sociable pastimes involving alcohol and drugs. Coffee drinking was associated with a more sober and civil conduct; the behaviour expected of the elite and middling classes in England.  

The rise of the Coffeehouse

The coffeehouse was a place where people gathered together to drink coffee, learn the news of the day, meet with other local residents and discuss matters of politics and society.  

The first English coffee house was opened in 1650 in Oxford. Two years later in 1652, the first London coffee house opened in Cornhill. By 1700, there were over 2000 coffeehouses in the city! Clearly we aren’t the only generation who like their fix of coffee…

The coffee house of the period was no more than a room in a larger domestic house. The occasional house offered several rooms to their customers and even private rooms for their ‘special customers’. Much like the Turkish coffeehouse, these public spaces also employed young boys working as shoe shiners or as porters for hire on the premises!

The head of the household would run the coffee house either a man, a widow or a single woman, and would be found at the end of the room serving coffee to customers behind the bar. From the picture shown below, you can see a single female serving coffee to customers with the coffee pot warming in front of the fire.

The coffee house played a vital role in politics. In the coffeehouse, everyone had access to a newspaper and pamphlet and could participate in political discussion. A model of new ideas of politics and new patterns of social interaction and economic behaviour were set as a consequence. For the first time, people could actively debate and converse in the topics of the age! Access for all offered a revolutionary moment in political history. Everyone could now become a statesman! Coffee houses became a setting for intellectual life, in which public opinion could vent itself around a table and across a coffee cup.   Two pennies was the price of three hours debate and discussion!

Seventeenth Century Coffee Recipe:

25 grams of ground coffee beans

¾ pint of water

This coffee was then occasionally added to milk- to get ‘milk coffee’ and sugar, a custom that became increasingly popular over the seventeenth century.

Now the UK is on lockdown, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to focus my attention once again to my blog. Being stuck at home for days on end has led to me researching everything that my dad likes to collect; from brown wooden boxes, to Toby Jugs. What puzzles me the most however is why the house is full of cigarette cards. My dad does not, nor has he ever, smoked. I have no idea why our lounge is covered in framed cigarette cards so I thought, whilst I have nothing else to do, I would finally find out.

First things first, I thought ,I’d better show you what cigarette cards are.  We have various on display, from of the kings and queens of England, to famous actors and actresses and chickens. Yes. You heard me right,  chickens.

They are pretty cool, but what is their purpose?

Cigarette cards are simply trade cards that were issued by tobacco manufacturers to stiffen cigarette packaging throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The soft paper packets that contained cigarettes left the contents vulnerable to damage and therefore these cards were provided as a ‘stiffener’. Each set of cards typically consisted of 25 to 50 related subjects, but series’ of over 100 cards were also produced. The most popular themes featured sepia photographs of leading actresses, politicians and celebrities. The size of each card very much depended upon the size of each pack of cigarettes contained within.

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The origins of these cards can be traced back to 1870s America where they were produced by cigarette companies offering a perfect advertising opportunity. They first depicted baseball players, Indian chiefs, flags and famous actresses. Allen and Ginter Tobacco Company were the first cigarette company that issued cards, with other large companies such as Goodwin & Co soon following suit.

In 1893 John Players and Sons became one of the first British cigarette manufacturer to issue sets of general interest titled Castles and Abbeys rather than the typical theme of ‘Hollywood stars’. Other sets produced include Footballers in 1926; Motor Cars in 1936 and Kings and Queens in 1935 (now featured on a wall in my lounge) . This was the first collection to feature short notes on the reverse side to give some background information of the featured monarch!

In many cases, these cards were the only way people could see other countries, exotic animals and people from around the world. They became extremely sought after by the public. In fact, the 1920s and 1930s were seen as the golden age of cigarette cards!

One collector is reported to have said in the late nineteenth century:

‘With no newsreels, no roto sections, no picture newspapers. A good cigarette picture was no mere plaything for a boy. It was life’

The collection of these cards became so incredibly sought after throughout the early twentieth century, that by 1900 companies began to issue hardback ‘slip in’ albums for people to store and display their collections. Some cards were even issued with adhesive backs ready for the album! Forget stamp collecting, cigarette cards were the new ‘hit’ thing to collect!

These cards carried knowledge and information on a wide range of subjects to millions of people at a time who had a limited education and travel opportunities. These cards are a serious insight into popular culture and knowledge for the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Why did they stop issuing them?

In 1939, war broke out. Britain experienced significant paper and board shortages and this meant issuing cigarette cards became untenable. The British wartime government cited the cards as ‘a waste of vital raw materials’ and most British cigarette companies stopped production almost immediately in 1939. Unfortunately cigarette cards were never issued on a significant scale ever again.

I’ll leave you with a little anecdote. As a young lad, my grandfather and his friends would stand outside London tube stations and ask passers-by ‘can I have your fag card sir’ . Cigarette cards were some-what of a fanatic craze where young children would collect and swap cards to build a collection. I compare this to my ‘top trump’ or ‘craze bones’ phase as a 10 year old? Does anyone else remember those?

So, now you know. Cigarette cards have a history and maybe my dad isn’t crazy to collect them after all. Maybe for the next blog,  I’ll talk about yet another strange thing my dad collects?

Today, many people eat dinner in front of the television. Eating around the table surrounded by our family and friends happens infrequently and for some just once a year on Christmas Day. We have such hectic lives that eating for pleasure rather than survival has become a norm. Yet, in the nineteenth century, evening dinner with the family was an expected ritual in the middle class household. It was time for the family to come together and enjoy one another’s company after work.  

Providing an evening dinner was the responsibility of the housewife. As a starting point for the discussion , it is important to comment on gender relations  prevalent in the nineteenth century. There was a physical separation of the home and the work place and this was reinforced by separate masculine and feminine identities. Masculinity was marked by male social and political independence, work and a natural sexual being. Femininity implied dependence, domesticity and subordination. It was expected that women  became wives and mothers and took responsibility for the comfort and security of the home.

An image of the ‘perfect’ housewife emerged in domestic manuals of the period such as Eliza Acton’s Modern Cookery For the Private Family (1845) and Isabelle Beeton’s Household Management (1859).

These manuals projected  the values and duties expected of a doting housewife. Isabelle Beeton’s domestic manual sold over 50,000 copies in its first year of publication. The popularity of the manuals show how women of the period were heavily reliant on the instructions, and were expected to follow them to achieve any sort of success. Essentially a woman was expected to uphold  responsibilities of   a wife and mother, an educator and religious guide for her children, and be fully responsible for the smooth running of the home.

Sociability and display were also considered to be of the upmost importance to a woman’s social position and role. Women were seen to be largely responsible for the presentation of the home, receiving of guests and the display of culinary expertise. Dinner parties were a reflection of feminine tastes and social education. Wives were responsible for the menu, budgeting, expenses, managing staff and observing and regulating the etiquette for the evening.

Isabelle Beeton in her work Household Management (1859) in fact wrote about the dinner party culture of the nineteenth century in great detail.

‘Dining is the privilege of civilisation. It was of considerable importance and a well-served table was a striking index of human ingenuity and resource’[1].

The dining experience is presented by Beeton as a way to determine the social hierarchy. Dining for the middle class served to reflect certain stereotypical values. Following Beeton’s instructions, women were able to understand dining; the receiving and entertaining of guests was of the upmost importance to their social standing and fundamental to their role as a wife.

I have some examples of  dinner party plans held by middle class couples in the nineteenth century.

The first is an insert from a personal manuscript recipe book of Hannah Sheppard dated between the years 1818-1863. The plan features a mixture of meats and desserts including poultry, tongue, turkey and pheasant as well as the desserts of trifle and jelly.

To find a dinner plan like this is quite extraordinary! It shows us that unlike today where we have a three course dinner, (otherwise known as a Service à la Russe ), which normally consists of a number of savoury courses followed by a sweet dessert, in the mid-nineteenth century, all courses were served together. This is known as  Service à la Française, and involves serving three to four courses of various dishes at the same time, leaving guests to largely help themselves to the serving dishes. This style of dining gave the diner choice!

It was highly unlikely that each diner at the table had exactly the same meal. This became the norm from the middle ages right through until the nineteenth century when the la Russe style then began to replace it in restaurants before filtering into everyday life. I suppose this style of dining is now called a Buffet!

The following image is also a plan for a dinner party from the Matthey Family Recipe Book dated 1750-1900. Identifiable dishes include Lobster, Spiced Beef, Fish and numerous soup offerings.

It was of the utmost importance to include the best meats the families could afford. Lobster and Veal were (and still are) incredibly expensive meats to purchase for daily consumption. Women included such delicacies at their dinner parties to reflect their status and wealth to  guests. Such events were where families could display and consolidate their class status. To the Englishwoman, hosting and dining was a reflection of her standing in the community and reflected  her ability as a housewife to provide for the home and table.

The study of dining may seem unusual to the average person, but as I have discussed, the dinner table has an incredible history! Dining was very important to the average middle class woman! It provided a chance to project her status, wealth and sociability, all of which were essential aspects of her role and responsibilities in the home. We can tell an incredible amount from a simple dinner plan or table. Next time you make dinner don’t watch television, go sit down with your family and friends, discuss your day and most importantly enjoy their company, just like the nineteenth century household.

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[1] Isabella Beeton, Book of Household Management, 2^nd Edition, (London: Ward Lock and Co LTD, 1915), p.363

Beauty is one of the most profitable industries in the twenty first century, with a combined net worth in 2019 of 532 billion pounds worldwide. I personally spend hours scrolling through Beauty Bay and Feel Unique looking for the next best thing to ‘save my skin’ or ‘to brighten my face’. Each product is advertised with the sole purpose of making a woman more beautiful, yet the feeling, the confidence it instils and the comfort that comes with makeup has been felt by women long before the twenty-first century.

Why was beauty important in the sixteenth century?

There are two main reasons why beauty was important to the average sixteenth century woman:

1. Women had no real way of earning money in the early modern period. They were legally and financially dependent on their male counterparts. Looking good was entwined with securing a good marriage and financial stability. The need for a good match was necessary to secure and further their social standing in the world.
2. Women enjoyed makeup! Just like today, women enjoyed discussing and swapping beauty recipes. There was pleasure in feeling nice and looking nice. These are the same kind of pleasures that we get from make up today.

The Attitude

There was a difference of opinion in England and Europe towards makeup. There was general acceptance of makeup by those on the continent. Yet in England, makeup was met with resentment. Beauty was perceived to be a gift from God, and many believed that the wearing of makeup undermined God’s judgement.

Skincare such as moisturiser, toner, and cleanser were generally accepted as these products did not disguise the face. Makeup that coloured the face, products such as foundation, blusher and lipstick were however warned against. Even when makeup was applied very subtly, men were concerned that they would be tricked into thinking their wives were beautiful.

Women of course continued to wear makeup regardless of men’s concerns. Many feminist writers in fact argued, what concern is it to a man! Is makeup applied for the enjoyment of men or women? This exact argument is still happening today…

The Elizabethan ideal feminine beauty was golden hair, a pallid complexion, bright eyes and red lips. The fairest women were as white as snow and as red as blood! To achieve this image, women would use Ceruse, a white lead concoction to create the illusion of a pale complexion. Vermillion and Cochineal were favoured ingredients too in creating rouge for the face and lips. Mercury Sublimate was used in face wash to remove blemishes and smooth the skin.

Now, would it surprise you if I said, makeup had the potential to kill?

Well, kill is a strong word. Makeup caused tiredness and dizziness at best. Women would risk their life with poisonous chemicals to achieve the beauty ideals set out during the Renaissance.  

Lead

Makeup was inevitably entwined with status and power among the Elizabethan elite during the sixteenth century. It was thought the paler the face, the higher the status. Therefore, Ceruse a white lead based foundation was used to cover the face. Lead paint was an ancient white pigment used until nineteenth century. Once Lead is absorbed into the blood it can damage:

1. The kidneys
2. The nervous system.

Symptoms included seizures and paralysis. However, as Lead was only used in small doses in cosmetics, women wouldn’t absorb enough metal to receive extreme acute poisoning. Instead, common side effects would include a lack of concentration and tiredness.

Mercury Sublimate

Mercury Sublimate was used for the same reason as Lead- it produced a bright white colour. This was a favoured chemical used to lighten the skin. Mercury also had the potential to damage the kidneys and the nervous system! The Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland is a famous example of mercury poisoning! Mercury was used to stiffen hats throughout the nineteenth century. Those who worked in the hat industry were exposed to high doses of mercury on a daily basis and eventually the exposure cause neurological damage- including slurred speech, memory loss and tremors!  The expression ‘mad as a hatter’ has its origins in this nineteenth century textile industry.

There are hundreds of face washes you can buy these days, from Nivea to Clinique. Yet, in the sixteenth century face washes were homemade concoctions.

Ingredients included:

• Eggs Shells- an exfoliant
• Mercury- a skin lightener
• Alum – a skin tightening agent
• Lemon Juice- an exfoliant
• Rose Water – for scent

Although mercury is not featured in face washes today, it is unfortunately still used in some products as a skin lightener. Lighter skin is still favoured or considered to be more attractive in some parts of the world, where the chemical is still sold and used in cosmetics.

Vermillion and Cochineal

The Elizabethan woman was known for her red lips and cheeks. These were achieved by two ingredients- Vermillion and Cochineal!

Vermillion is also known as Mercury Sulphide and was used for its deep red pigment. It is yet another poisonous metal that was used on the skin! It resulted in the same symptoms as other mercury based compounds that would only become dangerous if consumed in large doses!

Cochineal on the other hand, was completely harmless,  extracted from red woodlice sourced from Asia which were then crushed to extract a bright red pigment. The most obvious use is in food colouring perfect for icing a cake! The woodlice are now farmed commercially. This may sound gross but at least they give their lives in the endless search for beauty.

The ingredients used in cosmetics may be fatal and sometimes gross, but women took immense pleasure in looking good. Regardless of backlash, women wished to obtain the best in makeup and fashion. Women continue to be united in their love for fashion, makeup and gossip.

Instagram is full of celebrities, from the likes of Molly-Mae to Victoria Beckham. We think of celebrities as a twenty-first century phenomenon when in fact, the eighteenth-century was just as troubled with this same obsession. Social influencers were as important as they are today. They may not have had a million followers liking their pictures or buying their brand deals but, they were a source of fascination for the people of London in the eighteenth-century.

The term ‘celebrity’, simply means a person who is celebrated. They demand some degree of public fascination. In 1700, it was wealth that bred celebrity status. Those with the titles of Duke, Prince, Countess or Lady for example, were likely to have been well known in Georgian London.  They appeared in newspapers, drawn in print, their hairstyles and clothes were copied by all. Beauty and wealth had never been so marketable. For newspapers, they were a constant source for gossip. The people of London were fascinated by these various characters.

The culture of sociability and display and the emergence of the Beau Monde, the fashionable elite of Georgian London, is where we can draw comparisons with the present day ‘social influencer’. People looked towards these figures as the epitome of  fashion, sociability, and sophistication- copied by all. Does this sound familiar? We scroll through Instagram endlessly looking at those with better clothes, more money and more status, hoping to achieve it one day. Grace Tosier was essentially the eighteenth-century ‘social influencer’.

Who was this character with so much fame?

Grace Tosier, was the wife of Thomas Tosier, a Georgian chocolate maker. Now, this doesn’t exactly sound particularly riveting- I bet you couldn’t name the owner of Cadbury or Lindt, let alone call them a ‘celebrity’? Thomas Tosier, was the King’s chief chocolate maker residing at Hampton Court Palace from the beginning of George I’s reign in 1714 until his own death in 1733. He served George I a cup of hot chocolate every single morning. It was Thomas’s role as chief chocolate maker that made the Tosier name so famous. ‘Tosier’ was associated with royalty, sophistication and luxury. In fact, the name ‘Tosier’ became integral for the business and Grace’s personal fame. Even after Thomas’s death and her remarriage, she kept the surname ‘Tosier’.

In her husband’s absence, Grace kept the famous Chocolate House open on Chocolate Row, Greenwich. Chocolate Row was known for its array of chocolate houses and as a centre of social life during the eighteenth-century. Chocolate houses, similar to the coffeehouses of the time, were exclusive arenas for the upper class. A place for sophistication, luxury and good company. Chocolate was a more precious commodity than tea and coffee. However, this isn’t the bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk we know and love. It wasn’t until the nineteenth century that a chocolate bar first appeared. This was drinking chocolate: a mixture of water, ground coco beans and spices.

Grace used her husband’s links to the King to increase the popularity of the business. The Chocolate House provided a V.I.P experience, sold as chocolate fit for a king! Putting on events, such as dinners, that coincided with the Royal Calendar to attract the men and women attending court throughout the year. This brought Dukes, Knights, and Ambassadors all wanting the ‘King’s experience’. To appeal to this high society, she even installed the ‘Great Room’ in 1721 just for dancing. Tosier’s Chocolate House, became a centre for sociability and display where those of higher status enjoyed the sophistication and luxury associated with drinking chocolate within this stately environment. It was this flourishing business that elevated Grace’s status in the social hierarchy of London- people attended the Chocolate House for Grace.

Grace’s fame may have begun with her marriage to the King’s chocolate maker, but she became a celebrity in her own right. A number of periodicals commented upon her appearance in the 1720s, as having a ‘large brimmed hat’ and ‘flowers in her bosom’. It was quite remarkable for this period to see the growth of celebrities with the absence of large newspaper corporations such as the Times (1785). Instead, ‘celebrity culture’ flourished through word of mouth, prints, periodicals, and smaller scaled newspapers. The people of London would have gossiped about Grace without ever seeing her. It wasn’t until 1729, with Bartholomew Dandridge’s ‘series of celebrities’, that a portrait of Grace was produced. From 1729, the mass public could finally visualise Grace, connecting the gossip to a face!

Bartholomew Dandridge produced a collectable series of the ‘celebrities of London’ in the early Georgian period. It included portraits of Princes, Lords and the fashionable men and women of London, otherwise known as the Beau Monde. It was a significant mark of success that Grace’s portrait was worthy of collecting. The production of her portrait presented significant recognition of her status and popularity among the London public. From 1729 people, regardless of class and status, could purchase and collect a copy of her portrait. She was no longer simply a name associated with a Chocolate House. Grace was a recognised character of London and people looked to her as an image of sophistication, luxury and fashion.

The people of Georgian London held the same qualms as we have today- obsessed with popularity, gossip, and beauty. Grace Tosier is simply an example of the emerging celebrity culture of the eighteenth-century. Just remember next time you’re scrolling through Instagram, this fascination with modern-day ‘celebrities’ started with the likes of Grace Tosier.

If you’re interested, the Tosier Chocolate Company are still in business today carrying on the legacy of Thomas and Grace Tosier 300 years later.

I am a Public History MA student, studying at Royal Holloway University of London. My areas of interest lay with the Early Modern Period.

The Title of the Blog is ‘The Boujee Bourgeois’. Every month, the blog will look at different aspects of middle-class life in the Early Modern Period, ranging from the obsession with celebrities to makeup and fashion. It hopes to prove, our so called ‘modern day phenomenons’ are not so modern at all!