Wickham Place is the London home of Lord and Lady Southgate, their children and staff. Located in fashionable Belgravia it is a fine Georgian terrace house.
Tonight we are below stairs in the Wickham Place kitchen. The Wickham Place kitchens are situated on the ground floor of Wickham Place, adjoining the Butler’s Pantry. It is dominated by big black leaded range, and next to it stands a heavy dark wood dresser that has been there for as long as anyone can remember. In the middle of the kitchen stands Cook’s preserve, the pine deal table on which she does most of her preparation for both the meals served to the family upstairs and those for the downstairs staff.
It's a busy and noisy place this evening with all spare hands being put to some use as Lord and Lady Southgate entertain the United States Ambassador to England, Mr. Whitelaw Reid*. As he is coming, Her Ladyship has invited a number of her fellow Americans who now live in London society like she does.
There is a frenetic energy about the room which scullery maid Agnes finds a little overwhelming as she tries to be useful to Mrs. Bradley and keep out from under the feet of the constant stream of liveried footmen coming through with dirty glasses for her to wash and empty bottles of champagne to be disposed of. In comparison, Mrs. Bradley the cook, has everything in hand as she orders Agnes, an additional kitchen maid she has hired for the night and the two housemaids Sara and Tilley about. Here we are before the range at the pine deal table where Mrs. Bradley has just finished removing some lightly fried hors d’oeuvres from her copper skillet with a slotted spatula, carefully placing them on a fine white porcelain plate.
“Well,” she says with a satisfied sigh over the clatter of pots and the patter of feet. “What do you think Agnes?”
“About what, Mrs. Bradley?” Agnes scurries over from the sink.
“About what! About what? About these, girl!” She indicates to the three plates before her.
The hors d’oeuvres for the reception are ready. Prawns on puff pastry decorated with caviar, potato petites adored with cherry tomatoes and cucumber slivers and by special request of Her Ladyship for the tastes of her American friends, crab, tomato, fresh herbs and mayonnaise on toast squares.
“Oh! Oh, they look wonderful Mrs. Bradley! I hope to make something as beautiful as these some day.”
“And you will, girl. You will.” the older woman assures her. “Now, have you done your bit for the hors d’oeuvres, Agnes?”
The cook has recently taught her scullery maid how to fashion pretty looking ornamental garnishes for platters. “Yes, Mrs. Bradley!” She carefully brings over from the safety of a sideboard in the corner of the kitchen a selection of sliced carrots and greenery which she artfully places on each plate.
“Very good Agnes!” Cook says approvingly. “Fit for a queen, or a gaggle of American Dollar Princesses in this case, my girl!”
“Are the canapés ready, Mrs. Bradley?” a slightly out of breath and red-faced Mr. Withers the butler asks as he hurries through the kitchen door from the corridor outside. “Viscount and Viscountess Astor** have finally arrived.”
“Hors d’oeuvres for the evening!” she says proudly. “With Agnes’ help, of course.”
“Very good Agnes,” Mr. Withers gives her one of his approving smiles. “Mrs. Bradley will make a first class cook of you yet.”
The scullery maid smiles shyly and blushes.
“Potato petites with cherry tomatoes and cucumber slivers, prawns on puff pastry with caviar,” Cook continues. “And crab, tomato, fresh herbs and mayonnaise on toast by special request of Her Ladyship for the Americans amongst them upstairs.”
The three liveried house footmen in their frock coats, britches and powdered wigs return and take one plate each, holding them safely aloft as he file out the door and upstairs to serve the guests mingling in Wickham Place’s main reception room.
“Well, don’t just stand there, girl!” Cook say to the mesmerised Agnes. “I need you chopping herbs to garnish the soup with whilst Florrie and I check on the roast fowls.”
“Yes, Mrs. Bradley.” Says Agnes, still smiling from the praise of Cook and Mr. Withers.
*Mr. Whitelaw Reid was an American politician, newspaper editor and writer. He was appointed the U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St, James’ by Theodore Roosevelt in 1905. He served in this role, including during the William Howard Taft administration, until his death in 1912.
**Waldorf Astor, Second Viscount Astor and his wife Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor were American-born members of the British aristocracy and were also British politicians. Lady Astor although not the first woman elected to the British parliament, was the first woman elected to take her seat there. Both were members of parliament at different times for Plymouth.
The theme for the 27th of November “Looking Close… on Friday” is “savoury food”. This tableaux is made up of part of my 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures collection. Some pieces come from my own childhood like the ladderback chair to the left of the picture. Other items I acquired as an adult through specialist online dealers and artists who specialise in 1:12 miniatures.
Fun things to look for in this tableaux include:
The plates of finely made hors d‘oeuvres seen on Cook’s deal table, and the parsnip you can just see peeping out of the blue and white Cornishware bowl on the rfight are artisan miniatures from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering in England, as are the onions hanging to the right of the range. He has a dizzying array of meals which is always growing, and all are made entirely or put together by hand, so each item is individual.
The kitchen knife and the meat cleaver with their inlaid handles and sharpened blades comes from English miniatures specialist Doreen Jeffries Small Wonders Miniature store.
The copper stock pot, the copper pan and the pots on the range in the background are all made of real copper and come from various miniature stockists in England and America.
To the right of the photo, containing parsnips is one of Cook’s Cornishware white and blue striped bowls. One of her Cornishware cannisters stands on the dresser in the background. Cornishware is a striped kitchenware brand trademarked to and manufactured by T.G. Green & Co Ltd. Originally introduced in the 1920s and manufactured in Church Gresley, Derbyshire, it was a huge success for the company and in the succeeding 30 years it was exported around the world. The company ceased production in June 2007 when the factory closed under the ownership of parent company, The Tableshop Group. The range was revived in 2009 after T.G. Green was bought by a trio of British investors.
The copper skillet on the edge of the chopping board, the stock pot and the kettle on the range are all 1:12 miniature that come from various stockists over the years.
The jar of herbs is also a 1:12 miniature, made of real glass with a real cork stopper in it.
The large kitchen range in the background is a 1:12 miniature replica of the coal fed Phoenix Kitchen Range. A mid-Victorian model, it has hinged opening doors, hanging bars above the stove and a little bass hot water tap (used in the days before plumbed hot water).
