It is amazing how one tiny
fragment of pottery from an archaeological dig can tell us the appearance and
function of an entire object. At Historic Annapolis, we have been delving deep
into past archaeological records to see if they can tell us anything new about
William Paca’s Annapolitan lifestyle.
Figure 1:
White salt-glazed stoneware fragment found during the William Paca House garden
excavations
This white salt-glazed stoneware
fragment was dug up in the 1960s from the area just in front of the west wing
of the William Paca House.[1]
Although it may not look like much in its current state, a closer examination
of its shape enables a direct match to be made with a white salt-glazed
sauceboat on exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The
diaper pattern and the rococo edge of the fragment perfectly matches the
sauceboat. This match gives us a wealth of information about William Paca’s
tastes in both fashion and food!
Figure 2:
White salt-glazed stoneware sauce boat. © Victoria and Albert Museum,
London. Online: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O151250/sauce-boat-unknown/
The design of the sauceboat and
the material in which it was made conveys that William Paca was an exceedingly fashionable
gentleman. Rococo tableware was all the rage amongst elite circles from London
to Annapolis in the third quarter of the eighteenth century. An excavation of
the Calvert House on State Circle, Annapolis, has revealed that the Calvert family owned
rococo style white salt-glazed plates with similar decorative motifs to William
Paca’s sauceboat.
Figure 3:
White salt-glazed plate from the Governor Calvert House. http://www.aia.umd.edu/seeking_liberty/gov_calvert.html
What would have been served in William Paca’s sauceboat?
The colonial dining table would
often have included a large dish of meat or fish accompanied by a complementary
sauce served in an elegant sauceboat. A popular combination was the serving of
duck with an orange sauce, a pairing still popular today! To make your own
authentic eighteenth-century dish, follow these instructions:
· 1.) Stuff a duck with a mixture of ducks liver,
streaky bacon, butter, onions, parsley and mushrooms
· 2.) Place bacon slices on top of the duck and cover
with paper (or foil if you want to follow twenty-first-century conventions!)
· 3.) When the duck has been roasted, pour some of the
gravy juices into a stew pot
· 4.) Add minced shallots and the juice of an orange to
the stew pot and heat[2]
· 5.) Serve the sauce in a beautiful rococo stoneware
sauceboat
Figure 4. A little after Paca's time, a gentleman demonstrates the joy that a sauceboat (albeit a slightly less elegant version) could bring. A convalescing man happily eating a meal, assisted by his grinning servant, coloured etching by J. Sneyd, 1804, after J. Gillray. © Wellcome Library, London http://catalogue.wellcomelibrary.org/record=b1160208
