Victorian kitchen counters: Late Victorian kitchens did not have counters. Free standing tables served as work surfaces. In fairly grand houses there were counters of a sort in the butler's pantry, usually wood, but these were not for food preparation. Instead, they were used as staging areas for food to be served in the dining room, dishes and serving pieces to be put away, or for silver polishing, etc. Shelving in kitchens was open, often just nailed up on the wall, sometimes free standing shelves resembling bookcases. Kitchen cabinets and counters as we know them today did not come into use until the first quarter of the 20th century. Hope this helps.

Margaret in Texas

Victorian Kitchens: I hate to disagree with anyone (no, really!) but fitted kitchens did exist in Victorian times - well towards the end anyway.

I have a National Trust book showing many, many kitchen interiors and they were definitely fitted in the big houses although I guess a country cottage would not have one so grand.

Wall cupboards with glass fronted doors and floor standing cupboards with top drawers tend to be fitted together to become dressers (china hutches). Other wall cupboards have marble tops for cold foods such as fish, dairy produce and pastry making and there are shelves above for preserves, pots and pans etc. The style is very much like shaker.

The main difference is the use of the central positioned kitchen table. This was used as a work top for most food preparation and usually had a rack beneath for storage and drawers for cutlery and utensils.

Karon

Victorian Kitchens: Looking back through antique and reproduction books of architects' designs. Bicknell (1873) as a fairly typical example frequently includes a sink and a bit of work area beyond in his floor plans but hardly enough space for micro wave, cuisenart, and a portable television, not to mention the toaster, juicer, and bread box.

Woodward's National Architect of 1869 (reprinted by Dover Press 1988) offers some very good insight. While these drawings consistently indicate shelves in closets, pantries, and privy, there is seldom more illustrated for the kitchens than (always) the range and (usually) a sink with some small work area beyond the actual sink itself and a boiler. In one case, the sink isn't even in the kitchen but, rather, in the adjacent pump room.

Woodward's "carpenter's specifications" tell as much by what they omit as by what they say. In the category "inside finish" subsection "shelves, hooks, ETC." :

"Shelf the closets and pantries as indicated on the plans and otherwise required. Fit up each end of the waiters' pantry, with counter shelf, and two dovetailed drawers, as indicated on the drawing. Also provide kitchen pantry with two dovetailed drawers"

In another set of carpenter specs, he expands to say "shelves in waiters' pantry to be enclosed with panel doors fastened with cupboard locks, and all drawers to have drawer locks." Woodward's specification for the plumber is to "furnish and put up a 36x20x6 inch cast iron sink with iron legs. . ."In the drawings for his design #15 on plate #63, a 14 X 16' kitchen is shown with a large range in the middle of the back wall. to the right is a space little more than 5 foot wide for sink (with small counter) and boiler. On the left is the door to an isolated kitchen pantry (with shelves and bins) Also shown are wash trays and dotted lines to indicate where a table would fit into the architect's scheme. There is also a built-in "dresser"(enclosed shelves - no counter) on a kitchen wall adjacent to the door to a well equipped waiter's pantry complete with counter space, sink (smallish), cabinets, and cupboard.

This book offers many fascinating insights into Victorian architecture, construction, and the accouterments of the then contemporary lifestyle. The reprint is retitled "A Victorian Housebuilder's Guide" For $10.00 at Barnes and Noble (sp?), its much more fun than a movie pass.

Sorry about being so long: Note the reprint is unabridged except for elimination of original "back of book" advertisements (Darn) I see no copyright claim within the modern frontpiece. (Dover Publications - Mineola, NY)

Mel Koplin

Victorian Kitchens: I beg to differ with those who said Victorians didn't have built-in cabinetry. When I attended the University of Cincinnati, several friends rented rooms or apartments in old houses in Clifton, the university suburb. One professor was rehabbing one which had never been modernized. Houses there mostly date from 1860-1910. All I visited had kitchens where the only upgrades were electricity, stoves, and refrigerators. Two had marble-topped lower cabinets, one had metal (probably zinc) topped lower cabinets. One had matching upper cabinets; the other had a Hoosier cabinet on one wall. The prof's (the fanciest house) had only lower cabinets, but also had an adjoining butler's pantry completely lined in matching upper and lower cabinetry. The marble tops were practical for keeping food cooler longer and for baking as they make pastry easier to work. Since Cincinnati's population at the time was primarily of German descent, marble tops were probably a necessity for making the best breads, stollens, and kuchens. I lived in an apartment building so old that the walls still had visible connections for gas lighting. The kitchen was hardly bigger than a closet, but had a built-in Hoosier-style cabinet next to the refrigerator and over-the-sink cabinets above a replacement sink and stove. These were all painted wood, with glassed-in upper cabinets. Hardware on the cabinets matched the gas fittings, so they were definitely original.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Victorian Kitchens: One of the problems I have with dollhouse kitchens, esp. period ones is that everyone groups all the "appliances" and such in one room in an arrangement much like the modern kitchens we have today. The kitchens of today developed after WW1, through the 30's and 40's and were pretty well established by the 1950's (layout I mean).

We should remember that Victorian kitchens of this period were directly influenced by personal wealth and geographic location. The kitchens of the very wealthy in the cities, who had large numbers of staff, were far different then those of say a New England farm house. AND kitchens were not just one room, again in wealthy homes there could many different rooms for specific work, something that's hard to achieve in a dollhouse.

Even New England homes in rural areas had at least the sink in a wash room, a pantry, and a storage closet for pots and pans. General, The "Kitchen" consisted of a room with the cook stove, a table, small movable tables for work space and a cabinet. Canned foods were kept in the cellar, root cellars were used, and large bulk items would be kept in a pantry.

The working class homes of the late 19th century did not have formal dining rooms BUT would have 2 Parlors, 1 formal, 1 for every day use. Basically try to think logically when doing a period kitchen: Ice Boxes, I've seen them placed in dollhouses next to the cook stove and that would never happen. Think about; ice cost money, placed next to the cook stove the ice would melt faster -- you'd have to buy ice faster, and you'd also pay a lot of money. Not to mention, would you want the Ice man to trudge across your clean floors in his muddy boots? Ice melts and ice boxes had to be drained so you'd want to be able to empty the drip quickly and without a mess! That's why Ice boxes were placed as near the back door as possible, even if it meant it was in another room.

If Victorian kitchens had counter tops they were usually marble and were used only in wet areas, like around sinks. Think about making dinner in a Victorian kitchen and all the walking you would from various pantries, storage closets, the stove etc. AND remember people bought perishable foods daily, which meant shopping once a day, usually after the morning chores were done, and before noon dinner!!!!!!

StevenB

Detached Kitchens: Question: "I was told that during the Federal period, kitchens were separate from the house because they were a fire hazard. Didn't know if it was true, and my house wasn't even federal style, but it became a great excuse to do a small house that became the servant's quarters with a kitchen."

Answer: Kitchens in the SOUTH or in warmer climates (USA), basically Virginia south, to keep the main house cool were placed in separate buildings because the hot weather and the fact that kitchen fires were burning all day and created a lot of heat indoors. Also in Southern homes a lot of household work was done outside in the door yard of the kitchen like making candles, doing laundry, etc. This couldn't be done in the North which had separate rooms inside for those jobs in bad weather.

Up North, houses in urbane areas had kitchens in the basement to deal with the heat and rural area homes often had summer kitchens located in back sheds connected to the main house beyond the everyday kitchen. Each summer the cook stove was moved to these kitchens to keep the main house cool. Still, the majority of homeowners had to endure the heat because they had no place for a summer kitchen, this would often be the lower income families......Again as I said, kitchen design and use was largely determined by location, income, and social standing for instance. Rural Vs. Urbane for instance.

Also the Southern states had slaves up to the Civil War and they did the house work and cooking so kitchen design and even safety was not a concern to the slave owner. Up North people paid for hired up, which until about 1900, was cheap and plentiful if you could afford it. Since the wife of the house didn't need to be concerned with the affairs of the kitchen, change was slow in coming. Only when it became impossible to find good help did kitchens change as housewives took over the duties once performed by hired help.

Although fires were a constant danger, pre Civil War, they did not happen as frequently as its made out to appear! These people lived with these conditions on a daily basis and knew what they were doing. Fires happened because of accidents just like they do today.

So to sum up, Kitchens in separate buildings in the Southern US pre Civil War, Kitchens in the main house up North.

Another architectural element determined by Geographic location were chimneys. In the south, chimneys were located on the outside of the home to keep the heat out of the main living areas and in the North chimneys were located inside to conserve the heat and keep the home warm. Today homes are pretty standard, but older homes can be read like a book if you know what you're looking at!! Remember, everything on an older home was put there or designed for a specific reason.

StevenB

Detached Kitchens: [ instance. Rural Vs. Urbane for instance. Also the Southern states had slaves up to the Civil War and they did the house work and cooking so kitchen design and even safety was not a concern to the slave owner. Up North people paid for hired up, which until about 1900, was cheap and ]

I would take some exception to this. First, only the richest of Southerners had slaves. Average folk did their own housework and cooking. And, safety was a concern to slave owners-their homes were at risk, and slaves were expensive. If a slave were killed and had to be replaced, it was costly , as was a slave being unable to work, short term or with a permanent handicap. History. So, cooking for the average Southerner was done outside over an open fire in the summer to avoid heating up the house, which didn't have a kitchen in many instances: just a fireplace that provided warmth, light and a cooking means.

Martha Simpson

Arts & Crafts: Art Nouveau actually started just a few years earlier, in the 1890s, Art Deco you're dead on--for reference, have fun watching all those great movies from the 30s--but Arts & Crafts is actually from about the 1880s-1910s (it's closely related to Mission style).

Molly/StormBorn

Dutch interiors from 1900: there was a great difference between the interiors of the workers; the so called middle class, the rich farmers and the people who lived in towns..
Perhaps it is interesting for the others to know how we lived in the first half of the 20th century.
Something about the way WE lived, not poor, neither very wealthy. My parents lived in a workman's' cottage where I still live. See garden page at my website. My father grew fruit, worked in other peoples' gardens, served beer in pubs and later he also worked in a factory where they dry grasses for cattle food.

So their interior was very simple: when they got married in the 20ties, they bought the most necessary furniture in straight, dark brown oak, the seats covered in dark red velvety fabric, a carpet on the floor, which first had a layer of dark patterned floor-cloth. They had yuckie brown, hairy curtains! They did not have wallpaper, but the walls were painted in a gloomy green shade(30ties) BUT earlier that century the walls had had a deep pink color: Dark apple blossom.

There was a mirror above the mantelpiece! And there was a clock and a tiny , little bookcase, they did not have many books... They had BIG lampshades with frills, in the 40-50ties, but must have had oil-lamps in the early years.

The kitchen was painted in BLUE, . It was the same shade used in the farms; against the flies! In this kitchen we only had a 2 pan electrical cooking set. And a built-in cupboard. Important in every kitchen was the rack with earthenware drawers, hanging in a little wooden rack on the wall. For sugar, coffee, flour, little ones for herbs. The more luxurious racks had a clock in it. There was a sink in our kitchen, but we can still see that there have been alterations in the twenties. I think there was none when the house was built...(1900)

Next to the fire-places in the kitchen AND the living room were two little cupboards above one an other: which opened in the kitchen as well in the living room: the upper for stock that had to be stored absolutely dry, like meds, tobacco, her sewing box....and the lowest little cupboard was forstoring....wood and peat, to keep the stove burning in winter.

My parents slept in a bed in a small backroom, but we also had those kind of cupboards, we children slept in , called "bedstee"! These were in the living room as that was the only place we had a stove! So it was warm there. This stove was black and round, with copper finishings. But earlier they also came in several colors (olive-green or even apple blossom pink!) Under the" bedstee" was always a cellar OR, at poor people's: an extra room to store all those children; most people had at least 8 to 12 children, my parents only had three...

My mother had no modern washing machine until the seventies! She washed all her life in that big wooden washing machine(NOW available in mini!) with an electro motor under it, so she did NOT have to rub on a washboard! We did not have a TV, BUT we had radio, from the beginning on! (20ties)

Neither did we have an refrigerator....I did not know how she kept her food cool....well, we had instant airco: the wind blew right through the house! The walls were only one stone thick with a plank wall on the inside. Not to mention I had colds very often...

We had no bathroom either...once a week in a tub and we went to the outside loo, mentioned before in this digest. You people in the countryside of America lived in almost the same circumstances. I even have read stories about NO electricity. My parents did have electricity; as they lived in a village. But when you lived isolated , somewhere in the polder, in the middle of nowhere, the electric co. did not give you a connection. So those people used oil lamps 'till the 60ties!

Farmers had the so called "Good room" of Mooie kamer; an extra room where they only came when there was something to celebrate and you wanted to impress people! This room had beautiful dark red upholstered chairs, mostly neo-classic or Biedermeier, luxurious velveteen wallpaper, a Bonheur case (see my website; the parlour)Etc. etc. Questions? Just mail me! ati.jonker@planet.nl http://members.tripodnet.nl/atiekees/

Atie, Holland

18th century barn: My next project will be the interior of a derelict 18th English century barn, and I'm having a hard time finding out what it would have been made of. All reference books I've consulted go into great detail about houses and public structures, but I can't find anything that tells me which materials a farmer would have used to construct his barn. Perhaps a stone foundation and wooden or thatched roof?

Lynn

18C English barns. It depends on what part of England the barn would have been. In Sussex for example, there were/are lots of barns made from flint - chipped and fixed in place with mortar. In Somerset barns were often made from the local stone, a beautiful golden colour, In Cornwall/Devon, made from 'Cob' (a sort of plaster, finished white) with a thatched roof, in other areas they were made from wooden planks.......I could go on.

Jacqui in Hampshire, UK

heating devices:
> Now, does anyone know when fireplaces began to be used? I always thought it was sometime in the 15th or early 16th century--any medievalists out there who can correct me? <
- In England, it was the 12th and 13th century, when the climate turned colder, and the English vineyards died.

> Also, the ceramic stoves that were used in the Low Countries and Scandinavia--is there a stovepipe attached? < - They were usually attached to a chimney. They were also used in the high countries like Bavaria and Austria.

Tom & Kari

Queen of Sheba: I have been fascinated by (and researching) her story for years now. Oddly enough, of all the dignitaries who visited King Solomon during his reign, she is the only one mentioned by name in the bible. There is also a very detailed list of all the gifts she brought him, kind of interesting. As Paulette said, she was the Queen of the Ethiopian people (the Sheban kingdom is believed to have stretched across the Red Sea, including what is now Ethiopia and also Yemen). The son she bore from Solomon is a legendary hero in Ethiopia. Their stories have a lot of info about her. You will also find stories about her in Arabic traditions, though there she is represented as a witch or a demon (I have a few theories about all this, if you're interested - I think there was basically a "trade war" at the time & Sheba & Israel cut a deal). She would be a fascinating character to create.

Graceanne

1900 dressmaker form in bedroom: Unless the "mistress of the house" had no sewing room, she wouldn't have had a dress on a dress form in her bedroom. And any dress on a form would have been in progress, certainly not left on the form once it was finished. For several years I was curator of house museum in Galveston. The house was built between 1893-95 and the interpretive date was 1911. Women with modest houses containing no sewing room often did their sewing in the dining room.

Margaret in Texas

1900 dressmaker form in bedroom: To whoever asked about a dressmaker's form in the bedroom; I don't think this is very likely (which doesn't mean you can't do it!).

Historically, a very wealthy woman WOULD have had her own dress form, but she would also have been paying someone else to do the sewing - and thus, the form would have remained at the dressmaker's. Less wealthy women who could still afford tailored clothes would have had to settle for their dressmaker's adjustable form, shared by many. And a poor woman would have been sewing by herself (or with her daughters), and would have to be her own form (which, incidentally, is how I do it. Ouch!).

Graceanne

1900 dressmaker form in bedroom: Once upon a time, around 1900, my grandmother's family was somewhat wealthy. My grandmother has told me that they used to hire a dressmaker to come stay with them for several weeks each year. During that time, the dressmaker, with the assistance of the women of the household, sewed all the women's new clothes for the year. I know there was a room dedicated to this purpose at the time -- a spare bedroom I think, but am not sure . It occurs to me that this would make a lovely miniature scene, with the hired dressmaker, stacks of patterns, fabric and cut-out fabric pieces. Perhaps one of the daughters of the household being measured, and the other daughters assisting with the sewing.

JoLynne

17th Century Dutch House -- Oh my! - My imagination was immediately fired up when I heard about your Dutch house project, and I spent about an hour last night talking to my husband about it. I could immediately see it all -- the elegant wooden ceiling beams, the painted and unnaturally clean black and white floors, the thick Turkey carpets thrown over the tables, the red velvet chairs rather too low to the ground, giant maps spread on the walls interspersed with seascapes (calm? or stormy?), wine glasses everywhere with at least one overturned. A Jan Steen kitchen with drunken revelers, or perhaps just a sleeping servant maid. A Ter Borch bedroom, with a box bed with red velvet hangings, a lady in spotless satins, the inevitable tiny dog and pair of slippers, perhaps a doctor visiting? A Vermeer music room, with those beautiful instruments, and some shadowy figures engaged in a conversation known only to themselves.

Diane

Dutch interiors: Here is a link to a Dutch site with a lot of old interiors. Enjoy! http://interieurmanifestatie.nl/index2.html

Marjon de Haas (The Netherlands)

Colonial roaster/oven: could you fake the roaster/oven device with a film canister and a couple of the cheap plastic hair rollers with the holders that are sort of like a cage? Cut the roller-holder in half lengthwise. Glue the halves together like back-to-back Cs. Remove the lid from the film canister, trace around the open end and cut a card or plastic lid end, punch in the decorative holes and use a couple of jump rings for hinges. Glue the canister into one of the roller Cs; the other forms the "feet" Paint the whole thing metallic and distress with "soot" and "rust" to look old. If this is like the ones I've seen in antique houses, you'd also cut a slice out of the long side of the canister that would be open and face the fire. In that case, instead of a door, you could have solid short ends with a center hole pierced, run a wire through as a spit with a rice-shaped bead on one end as the turning handle.

Loretta.Sniarowski

18th Century Settings: the large Dover book of Hogarth's prints is a WONDERFUL source book for anyone doing 18th century period settings (for either side of the Atlantic). His detailing is fantastic and what I found most refreshing is the average type persons living spaces, as opposed to the posh rooms shown in most architectural source works. Lots of cracked plaster, spilled cups, paneling (in its more simple form), exteriors & rustic humour. Delish!

Kallisti

Medieval Thatch houses & kitchen kettles > Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, rats, and bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof-hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs," There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence. The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entry way...hence, a "threshold,"
They cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while, hence the rhyme, "peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old." Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat." This is an excerpt from the ancient civilizations list on yahoo. Perhaps the graphic descriptions of medieval homes & kitchens can be useful for someone's next project?

Whui