ABSTRACT
Such men made the direct links in the highest reaches of society and for the most lavish catering. Table settings for grand occasions were given a strong vertical dimension. Food was raised on stands of one kind or another; there were tall vases of flowers and the stands for food even had flower arrangements placed on top of them; foods themselves were piled up or made in moulds to raise them like miniature castles; and there were extraordinary, towering constructions and sculptures in sugarpaste for the really grand event. Much of this was consciously architectural and paralleled the promiscuous antiquarianism of Victorian architecture, calling on the great past, be it Renaissance, Gothic or Classical, even Egyptian or, from the Empire, Indian (cf. Art-Journal 1851; Jones 1856). It would be by turns grand, picturesque and romantic. There were echoes here going back to medieval banquets and their subtleties, but more directly to the tradition of grand trionfi di tavola or pièces montées as it had developed on the Continent.
