NAPKINS: A BRIEF HISTORY

NAPKINS

1. The first napkin was a lump of dough the Spartans called 'apomagdalie', a mixture cut into small pieces and rolled and kneeded at the table, a custom that led to using sliced bread to wipe the hands. In Roman antiquity, napkins known as sudaria and mappae were made in both small and large lengths. The sudarium, Latin for "handkerchief," was a pocket-size fabric earned to blot the brow during meals taken in the warm Mediterranean climate. The mappa was a larger cloth spread over the edge of the couch as protection from food taken in a reclining position. The fabric was also used to blot the lips. Although each guest supplied his own mappa, on departure mappae were filled with delicacies leftover from the feast, a custom that continues today in restaurant "doggy bags."

2. In the early Middle Ages, the napkin disappeared from the table and hands and mouths were wiped on whatever was available, the back of the hand, clothing, or a piece of bread. Later, a few amenities returned and the table was laid with three cloths approximately 4 to 6 feet long by 5 feet wide. The first cloth, called a couch (from French, coucher, meaning "to lie down") was laid lengthwise before the master's place. A long towel called a surnappe, meaning "on the cloth," was laid over the couch; this indicated a place setting for an honored guest. The third cloth was a communal napkin that hung like a swag from the edge of the table. An example can be seen in The Last Supper by Dierik Bouts (1415-1475), which hangs in Saint Peter's Church, Louvain, Belgium. In the late Middle Ages the communal napkin was reduced to about the size of our average bath towel.

The napkin had gone from a cloth laid on the table to a fabric draped over the left arm of a servant. The maitre d' hotel, the man in charge of feasts, as a symbol of office and rank, draped a napkin from his left shoulder, and servants of lower rank folded napkins lengthwise over their left arms, a custom that continued into the eighteenth century. Today in the United States, the napkin is placed on the left of the cover. But in Europe, the napkin is often laid to the right of the spoon.

The napkin was a part of the ritual at medieval banquets. The ewerer, the person in charge of ablutions, carried a towel that the lord and his honored guests used to wipe their hands on. The Bayeux tapestry depicts a ewerer kneeling before the high table with a finger bowl and napkin. The panter carried a portpayne, a napkin folded decoratively to carry the bread and knife used by the lord of the manor, a custom that distinguished his space from those of exalted guests. The folded napkin was placed on the left side of the place setting; the open end faced the lord. The spoon was wrapped in another napkin, and a third napkin was laid over the first and second napkins. To demonstrate that the water for ablutions was not poisoned, the marshal or the cup bearer kissed the towel on which the lord wiped his hands and draped the towel over the lord's left shoulder for use.

a. "If napkins are distributed, yours should be placed on the left shoulder or arm; goblet and knife go to the right, bread to the left."
Erasmus, De Civilitate Morum Puerilium, 1530

4. By the sixteenth century, napkins were an accepted refinement of dining, a cloth made in different sizes for various events. The diaper, an English word for napkin, from the Greek word diaspron, was a white cotton or linen fabric woven with a small, repetitious, diamond-shaped pattern. The serviette was a large napkin used at the table. The serviette de collation was a smaller napkin used while standing to eat, similar to the way a cocktail napkin is used today. A touaille was a roller towel draped over a tube of wood or used as a communal towel that hung on the wall. It also meant a length of fabric laid on the altar or table to enclose bread, or a cloth used to protect a pillow or draped decoratively around a lady's head.

By the seventeenth century, the standard napkin was approximately 35 inches wide by 45 inches long, a capacious size that accommodated people who ate with their fingers. Essentially, napkins were approximately one-third the breadth of the tablecloth. However, when the fork was accepted by royalty in the seventeenth century, the napkin fell from use among the aristocracy and neatness in dining was emphasized. According to Ben Jonson, "Forks arrived in England from Italy 'to the saving of napkins.'" German-speaking people were reputed to be such neat diners that they seldom used a napkin.

The acceptance of the fork in the eighteenth century by all classes of society brought neatness to dining and reduced the size of the napkin to approximately 30 inches by 36 inches. Today, the napkin is made in a variety of sizes to meet every entertainment need: large for multicourse meals, medium for simple menus, small for afternoon tea and cocktails.

The French court imposed elaborate codes of etiquette on the aristocracy, among them the way to use a napkin, when to use it, and how far to unfold it in the lap. A French treatise dating from 1729 stated that "It is ungentlemanly to use a napkin for wiping the face or scraping the teeth, and a most vulgar error to wipe one's nose with it." And a rule of decorum from the same year laid out the protocol:

a. "The person of highest rank in the company should unfold his napkin first, all others waiting till he has done so before they unfold theirs. When all of those present are social equals, all unfold together, with no ceremony."

5. Fashionable men of the time wore stiffly starched ruffled collars, a style protected while dining with a napkin tied around the neck. Hence the expression "to make ends meet." When shirts with lace fronts came into vogue, napkins were tucked into the neck or buttonhole or were attached with a pin. In 1774, a French treatise declared, "the napkin covered the front of the body down to the knees, starting from below the collar and not tucked into said collar."

Around 1740, the tablecloth was made with matching napkins. According to Savary des Bruslons, "Twelve napkins, a large tablecloth and a small one, comprise what is called these days a 'table service.

Napkins

» About Napkins

Today, discriminating hosts and hostesses have a wide variety of napkin products from which to select. For formal dining, there is the cloth napkin, the paper napkin being reserved for more informal settings.
Cloth napkins come in several sizes, each size tailored to a specific use. A beverage napkin, used when serving drinks and hors d’oeuvres, like most cloth napkins, is square, about five inches to each side. A luncheon napkin is a couple of inches larger, and a dinner napkin larger still. The theory, evidently, is that the more food and drink that is served, the more potential there is for spillage, so the bigger the napkin must be to catch it.
Cloth napkins may be purchased in a rainbow of colors and a variety of fabrics, imprinted with custom designs and monograms, and can even come with matching tablecloths. However, a high-thread-count, white, linen or linen-cotton mix damask napkin is still considered the zenith of elegance.
Though a wedding reception should be considered a formal occasion, only the very wealthy can afford to have a catered meal for scores of guests, one that is served on fine place settings where cloth napkins have been set out. An acceptable cost-cutting compromise for big celebrations including weddings is to use a paper napkin whose size, heft, and finish resemble a cloth napkin. They can be ordered embossed with the bride and groom’s monograms or otherwise tailored to the buyer’s specifications.

» Napkin Etiquette

Whether the napkin is cloth or paper, when in polite company, a napkin is to be used with a measure of etiquette, so as not to offend other diners through a display of boorishness. (You’re excused from these rules only when the napkin you are offered is one of those flimsy little paper things that pop out of tabletop dispensers – the kind of “napkin” you cannot place on your lap expecting it to not blow away within 20 seconds; even here, however, try to keep boorish behavior in check.)
Rule 1: When you’re given a napkin, use it. Don’t let it sit beside your plate. It was given to you for wiping your face when you need to and to protect your lap from spills. Leaving it beside your plate marks you as a slob.
Rule 2: Wait for the host to pick up and unfold his napkin before you do the same with yours.
Rule 3: If the napkin is larger than your lap, fold it such that it just covers your lap.
Rule 4: In polite society, movements at the dinner table tend to be small, so don’t make any ostentatious displays like wildly shaking the napkin to open it. Just unfold it. And when you wipe your mouth, don’t use the napkin as you would a wash cloth during your morning shower; gently dab at your mouth.
Rule 5: Don’t wait for the food to be served before you open your napkin. Should your napkin still be sitting on the table when the food arrives, the server may have to create space to set your plate.
Rule 6: Should you have to leave the table during the meal, leave the napkin, loosely folded, on your seat or on the table to the left of your plate. Also put the loosely folded napkin to the left of your plate when you’re done eating, never on the plate.

Rule 7: The place for a napkin? In your lap. It is not tucked into your pants, nor does it belong tucked into your shirt collar. However, if you are in a milieu where that kind of behavior is acceptable, don’t be afraid to go along. For example, diners from Southern Italy (or southern New Jersey) have long known that a bowl of spaghetti topped with marinara sauce can be better enjoyed when you don’t have to worry about the red stuff splattering on your shirt. Many Italian and Italian-American diners therefore tuck the napkin into their collars as a matter of course. Feel free to do the same. Live! Enjoy!
But what about that waiter who carries a napkin draped over one arm? In part, it’s practicality. It’s readily available to mop up any accidental spills or other messes at your table. But the practice dates back a couple of hundred years in France; that was how waiters carried the napkins they would distribute to diners. Napkins have been in use for thousands of years.
It’s possible that cavemen at their wooly mammoth barbeques wiped the grease from their mouths using the animal’s pelt... and then rubbed it in their hair to get that suave, slicked-back look. But we don’t really know that. What we do know is that, by the Bronze Age, it’s likely something like a napkin was in use in many parts of the world. The first recorded use of the napkin was by the Romans. When that hearty eater, Buffetus Allucaneatus, reached for his napkin at the Roman dinner table, he didn’t find a cloth. What he used was some wadded up unbaked dough, which he pressed to his face. That removed whatever bits and morsels of food were sticking to it. Later, if he wished, he could bake and eat his napkin, morsels and all.

With the fall of Rome, Europe entered that slovenly, napkin-less period of the Dark Ages, with its uncouth barons and unwashed princesses wiping their hands on their tunics and mopping their faces with their shirttails and cuffs. We don’t know how knights encased in steel armor managed to wipe off their mouths.
By the time of the Renaissance, the French had a single, large communal napkin about the size of a table cloth which everyone at the table used. It may have been the precursor of the table cloth. It got smaller and smaller over the years until everyone had his own napkin. By the 1700’s, the French aristocracy had even promulgated rules of napkin etiquette, some of which we still use today throughout the Western world; e.g., we don’t blow our nose into our napkin. Or anyone else’s napkin, either.

Cloth Napkins

» Cloth and Linen Napkins

Is it ostentatious to use a cloth napkin rather than a paper one at every meal? Maybe, but who cares? It’s a touch of luxury.
The fanciest napkins are those made from damask cloth. Damask, which takes its name from the city of Damascus, Syria, used to refer to a method of weaving cloth in which threads of one type of fabric – say, silk – would be woven with threads of another, such as flax. This is still done, though the term damask also now applies to textiles with just the look of this type of weave; this is something that can now be achieved using a single type of thread such as cotton or linen. Brown when they come off the loom, but then bleached white, linen damask napkins are the crème de la crème of face-and-hand wipers. The best of these employ something called a double-damask weave, a heavier fabric that is especially responsive to making fancy folds.

» Cleaning Napkins

One objection to using cloth napkins that invariably arises is the problem of food or lipstick stains. Probably the best suggestion when it comes to tough food stains like barbeque sauce or wine is to avoid using your best white cloth napkins when you are serving foods or beverages that stain. Use paper those nights or some less fancy, expendable cloth napkins, preferably in a dark color.
But, if it's too late and your best table linens are already stained and soiled, perhaps these tips will help:

Starching napkins when you wash and iron them not only makes them easier to fold; it also helps repel stains the next time they’re used.
Glycerin removes lipstick stains.
For wine stains, wet them with water as soon as possible, then mound salt on both sides of the stain.
Supposedly, white wine poured on a red wine stain will remove it.
Wash all napkins as soon as possible after they are used.
Treat the stains with a prewash stain remover, then wash promptly.
Wash in warm or hot water using a powdered oxygen bleach and an enzyme-boosted detergent.
It may help to soak the napkins overnight in a mix of just enough water to cover them, one cup of laundry detergent, and one cup of dishwasher detergent. Wash the next morning.
After washing, dry the napkins on a clothes line to let the sun bleach away stains.
When all else fails, soak white napkins in strong bleach solution.

At some point, something like a strong grease stain will fail to yield to any kind of attack. That’s the time to reflect upon the verity that the world and all therein is ephemeral, and every napkin has to meet its ultimate fate: getting tossed or becoming a cleaning rag. Life is like that.

Keeping your napkins fresh and clean
Food or lipstick stains can usually be removed with normal washing. However, check the napkin after washing (before drying—the heat will set a stain). If the stain persists, soak it in your detergent and try again.
Grease stains are best removed by stretching the fabric tightly and running very hot water through the spot.
Tea or Coffee stains can be removed by soaking the napkin in cold water as soon as possible and then washing it normally.
Candle wax should have the excess scraped off and then iron between two paper towels which act as blotters. Then wash as normal.
Red wine stains are usually the most difficult. Some recommend soaking in milk before washing. I recommend pouring white wine over the red wine stain. If you don’t have white wine, try vinegar or gently rubbing with concentrated detergent. Wash in hottest water that is safe for the fabric and cross your fingers.

Paper Napkins

» About Paper Napkins

Cloth napkins have been wiping off messy lips for centuries; paper napkins, however, didn’t come along until 1887, when John Dickenson introduced them in the United States at his company’s annual dinner. This happened at about the same time that facial tissue and toilet paper was being introduced. It was, in total, a veritable paper revolution. However, paper napkins did not become truly popular in American households until the 1950’s. Now they are used to a far greater extent than cloth napkins, much to the dismay of both traditionalists and environmentalists.
Paper napkins also became popular with expense-conscious restaurateurs, and not simply for their lower initial cost; they were found to be more convenient and to eliminate the costs of, day in and day out, sending cloth napkins out to be laundered and receiving them back into inventory. Equally important, with paper napkins there is never the possibility of giving a guest a napkin with a residual stain on it or, sin of all restaurant sins, giving a diner a used napkin. The fast food restaurants that began proliferating in the 1950’s probably could not exist today without those wads of paper napkins clerks stuff by the handful in your takeout bags. (Hmmm, no more fast food without paper napkins, eh? Maybe that alone would be a good reason for banning them.)
Paper napkins come in a broad range of sizes, patterns, and quality. There are paper napkins with every kind of holiday design printed on them, colorful napkins for colorful parties, and even paper napkins that closely resemble cloth. You may order custom-designed paper napkins with the names and dates of the commemorative occasions you specify printed on them.
Paper napkin technology, ever advancing, has given us the paper napkin dispenser box and silver weights to keep the contents from catching a breeze and being blown out of their dispenser boxes – the perfect gift for the person who has everything, including a paper napkin fetish. Recent inventions include a napkin with a slightly adhesive surface that will not slip off your lap.
For home use, there’s no denying paper napkins can be a convenience – as in those times when you discover, twenty minutes before your bridge party, all your cloth napkins are in the laundry hamper, unwashed. Paper napkins can be used for any formal occasion and even some formal occasions. It’s generally okay to use them for classy wing-dings when the napkins are of such quality that they can almost pass for cloth.
Also, paper napkins with color patterns are appropriate at any holiday celebration or other festive occasions, such as cook-outs, no matter whether the occasion calls for champagne or beer.
Besides being versatile and making after dinner cleanup easier, paper napkins can – just like cloth napkins – be folded in into fancy shapes. In fact, paper napkins will hold their shape better when folded because the paper holds a crease better than the cloth; cloth napkins look better when the pattern features rounded folds rather than sharp corners. Make sure, when you’re using a paper napkin for folding, that it’s 3-ply and that you’ve got clean, dry hands before folding.

Napkin Rings

» About Napkin Rings

They can be as simple as strips of ribbon or as elegant as bejeweled silver rings or porcelain rings designed by Versace, but napkin rings, whatever their form, all have the same purpose – to bind a clean napkin, generally cloth, and keep it in place at each dinner place setting. The process of folding napkins renders them more attractive, but so do napkins rings, and with less time expended when a host is rushing to prepare for a sit-down affair.
Just so long as they will hold an entire napkin, rings can be made from nearly any kind of substance – paper, plastic, metal, wood, glass, ceramics, you name it. They can be purchased, generally in sets of four or eight, online, at antique stores, giftshops, and department stores. They can also be hand crafted at home. For instance, if you are handy at cutting glass, you can make attractive rings from the tops of long-neck beer bottles. Sculpey Clay can be used to bake in your home oven ceramic rings that you or your kids design yourselves. And you can keep your Uncle Finley out of trouble by having him whittle you some rings out of a chunk of walnut.
But, ever since napkin rings began being crafted in 1836, the most popular ones have been made of silver. (Napkin holders date back to the Middle Ages, but true rings did not emerge until much later.) These have recently found a good market with collectors. Extremely ornate napkin rings made during the Victorian and art nouveau periods can be very ornate, the more valued ones designed by such silversmiths as Georg Jensen, Tiffany, Liberty, or Gorham – true works of art that bring high prices at auction. Birds, animals, and children were popular themes for the craftsmen. Rings were sometimes made in combination with other pieces such as vases, butter dishes, or salts and pepper shakers. It’s rare, however, that such sets can be found today.
Some collectors specialize in various types of rings – those used by children (some featured letters of the alphabet or nursery rhymes), those bearing ornate engravings of the owners’ names, “breakfast rings” – small rings used in Germany and Holland to hold paper napkins at breakfast, and many other varieties. English rings are especially interesting because they are stamped with their date of manufacture and the city where they were made (usually Birmingham, London, Chester, or Sheffield). The really nice thing about these kinds of antiques is that they hold their value even while you can continue to use them at your dinner table.
Napkin rings fell out of use about the time paper napkins were becoming popular in the early 20th Century. But they were brought back into popularity through their use in the Eisenhower White House of the 1950’s.
Should you happen to be a guest at an occasion where napkin rings are being used, it’s considered polite, when you are done eating, to place your used napkin back in the ring.

Custom and Monogrammed Napkins

» Custom-Made Napkins

http://www.napkinfoldingguide.com/images/customnapkins.jpg

Did you know you can have napkins made for you just the way you want them and at a price that won’t break your bank?
At ForYourParty, for example, you can design your own paper napkins. First, you select the size: cocktail (5"x5"), luncheon (6.5"x6.5"), guest towel (4.25"x8"), dinner (8"x8"), or a napkin wrapped in a paper napkin ring (6"x1.5" high). Second, select a color from the 40 tints available. These include white and a linen-like white. Third, select the color you want any imprint to be. Fourth, specify the text (up to four lines) you want to have printed and indicate the type fonts you want to use. Next, select from a variety of graphic elements you may want to include – flowers, Christmas scenes, etc. Specify how you want the design formatted, and, finally, review the napkin in its entirety and change whatever you wish. The company promises to ship your order the following day. The price for this service runs from $24 to $50 for 50 napkins.
Many companies sell custom-made napkins on the internet. A number of them specialize. Outvite, for instance, produces custom napkins for gay and lesbian celebrations. American Yacht Supply produces napkins with a nautical theme. And Bennington Potters produces cloth napkins to match not just place mats they supply but also the stoneware table settings they make.
Maybe you’re an artist and want to put your work onto napkins. Companies like Party Innovations will do that for you, charging you a one-time fee for making a plate of whatever you send them. You can use the plate over and over again with no extra charge.
What type of napkins should I use for folding?

Square—Square—Square: Your napkin must be square in order for most folds to work.

Fabric: A creasable, cloth/linen napkin is best, although some folds will work with the synthetic stuff. However, most folds require a napkin that will hold a crease. That means cotton for the most part. The napkin may not have to be starched and ironed, but that will help for some of the fans folds. I still find cotton to be, by far, the best.

Patterns: Plain is best, although some patterns look nice in a fold. Keep it simple—remember the fold becomes the elegant touch not the design of the print.

SIZE: It does matter. Bigger is almost always better here. If you look around, you can find oversized cloth restaurant napkins. They are 20 inches by 20 inches. This is the best.
Paper napkins: Yes, sometimes you can use these and make nice folds. They are pre-folded into quarters and will actually work for many of the folds. Try it and see.
OLD: Used napkins work well if still SQUARE and starched and ironed. Once stretched out of shape their is little that can be done with them.

http://www.napkinfoldingguide.com/custom-napkins/

http://www.chefted.com/napkins2.html

The History of Cloth Napkin Folding

```````

The History of Cloth Napkin Folding

The Middle Ages marked the beginning of napkin use as we know it today. As years passed, the creativity of the human spirit led to variations on folding those napkins.

1. History

o Creative napkin folding may have started during the reign of Louis XIV, when people decided to present napkins as an art form. However, napkin folding really took off around the turn of the last century.

2. The folded napkin can have an elaborate placement on the table as a folded origami type or in a simple placement beside the dinner plates with a simple napkin ring. Whatever the preference, the napkin will always be an eye-catching addition to your table setting.

3. Napkin folding found its origins centuries ago. The Middle Age set a standard for table setting and manner as they became a major concern to people, particularly the royalty, especially with the invention of the fork in the 1600s. This period in time is also a benchmark for when folding napkins became a highly sought after art form. This art allowed the homeowner to display their pride, time and dedication to their homes overall appearance.

4. Japan had been greatly accredited with the introduction of origami, which is an intricate style of paper folding that can also be applied to napkins. Origami was largely an unwritten art form and was passed down through the generations orally. It was during the 19th Century that this art form was popularized and used for decoration for in-home dining presentations.

5. Below are a few examples of napkin folding that have given the table arrangements a simple elegance to the dining presentation. A bit of advice: it is best to starch or iron your napkins before folding, it make the assembly easier and a neater finished product.

Function

o A creatively folded napkin can make the simplest meal classier, and dinner guests are always impressed by an artfully folded napkin resting at their table setting.