Everything you need to know about the Art of hosting and the rules of good manners

A beautiful book by and for aesthetes

An editor and an Art historian dine together over delicate dishes served in precious pieces of goldwork. This is how the project for this work “Silver Tables” was born. The result is sumptuous: glossy paper, silvered edges of the book, iron-printed title, admirable images by photographer Masaki Okumura. As for the author, Stéphane-Jacques Addade, he is the heir of the society portraitist of the Belle époque, Jacques-Emile Blanche, a close friend of Marcel Proust; suffice to say that he knows how to appreciate refined atmospheres.

Table art, recipes and decorum

This collection is both a hymn to the splendor of solid silver tableware and to the French art of entertaining. Each of the tables set evokes a moment of sharing: a supper during the reign of Louis XVI, a dinner during the Second Empire, a tête-à-tête during the Roaring Twenties, a game of bridge, a cocktail in town, the tea time accompanied by sweets… The stagings bring to life pieces of goldsmithery from the 18th and 19th centuries, collected from antique dealers, Art Deco models, signed Jean Puiforcat, Jean Desprès, Christian Fjerdingstad as well as creations contemporary goldsmiths, such as Roland Daraspe or Goudji. To make the gourmet aesthete dream, certain silver dishes feature recipes prepared by Petrossian, a deliciously snobbish idea… The icing on the cake – it goes without saying – the text is full of tasty information on art to use your knife, your fork, your napkin and on the respectable way of drinking Champagne or wine through the ages. If many of the rules of good manners mentioned seem a bit outdated today, Stéphane-Jacques Addade obviously enjoyed stating them.

“Silver tables, the great art of French entertaining”by Stéphane-Jacques Addade, photographs Masaki Okumura, E/P/A