3-021-038 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A State Banquet at the Tuileries [Palace, in Paris], 1869. 'These grand festivities...usually take place in the Galerie de Diane, one of the historical apartments of the palace of Catherine de Medicis and Henri Quatre...On the occasion of a state banquet the display of plate of every description, combined with numerous magnificent vases filled with flowers and tropical plants, gives to the Imperial table a most gorgeous appearance. The immense apartment is then one blaze of light derived from innumerable candelabra and a series of immense chandeliers. Music plays during the entire repast, but so softly as not to interfere with the conversation, which is itself carried on in an undertone. Stalwart footmen, in the green, crimson, and gold Imperial livery, stand behind the chair of each guest; and other attendants, less gorgeously attired, bring in and serve the various courses and the wines, under the inspection of the "officiers de la bouche," who constantly parade backwards and forwards in full costume, and with dress swords at their sides, giving orders with an anxious air to a perfect army of subordinates'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.