Victoria July/August 2018

Our Reader-to-Reader question for this issue focuses on the traditional hope chest and its importance to the owner. We were thrilled with the overwhelming response to our query, and you will find a selection of the heartwarming letters on page 11. Many additional letters will be part of our online content in the coming weeks. Although a hope chest may not be of great importance to today’s young women, there was a time, not so long ago, when acquiring a chest and filling it with both practical and luxury items was expected. The one I own continues to have a special place in my home because of its story. As a young teen, I saw a lovely blanket chest of Pennsylvania Dutch origin and knew immediately that something like it would be…

Take a closer look at some of our favorite July/August features: La Vie Rustic In a celebration of gracious living, Georgeanne Brennan, entrepreneur and cookbook author, offers several recipes exclusively for Victoria. The Antiques Diva Navigating the treasure troves and isles of Venice, Italy, is Toma Clark Haines, who tours the wares of lauded Murano glassmakers Barovier & Toso. Summer Ever After Designer Marsha Mason, who elevated her own home from uninspired to enchanting, offers advice for cultivating warm and welcoming interiors. A Taste of the Tropics Indulge in a menu that infuses exotic beachside destinations and warm ocean breezes into every succulent bite. Our tropical fruit recipes bring the coast to you. Visit our website to read this issue’s online stories and to find more of the content you love.…

I inherited my sweet great-aunt Clara’s cedar chest. Born in 1885, Clara was the last of the five children of Swan and Hannah, who had immigrated from Sweden and crossed their new country from the East Coast to Illinois and by covered wagon to central Nebraska. Although all her siblings married and had children, she did not. I always wondered why, because she was such a sweet, happy, and kind person. What I learned almost broke my heart. When she was a young woman and her mother had passed away, she fell for a young man in her town. But World War I came along, and he was in the military. He gave Clara a gold promise ring, which I now have, with four small rubies encircling a small pearl,…

Once upon a summertime, before Game Boys and iPads and smartphones and SUVs and minivans, even before seat belts, families all over America climbed into four-door sedans and station wagons and headed out for parts unknown. Or, in the case of our family, for parts known: our grandparents’ farms in Illinois and Indiana. Route 66, the two-lane “Mother Road,” as John Steinbeck first named it, stretched for 2,400 miles across eight states. During the years we lived in California, the journey to our grandparents took two nights and three days if Dad could join us; four days, if Mother was driving alone, sometimes with help from my teenage siblings, who claimed front seat rights by virtue of age or with threats of impending carsickness. The front seat held three people; the…

“I WALKED FAR DOWN THE BEACH, SOOTHED BY THE RHYTHM OF THE WAVES, THE SUN ON MY BARE BACK AND LEGS, THE WIND AND MIST FROM THE SPRAY ON MY HAIR.” —Anne Morrow Lindbergh…

Today, the word “banquet” conjures up images of wedding parties and conference meals. The large number of people in attendance puts an understandable strain on the kitchen and service staff; there is a reason wedding invitations request the selection of the main course ahead of time. Imagine preparing for such an event without modern ovens, when a whole array of food—perhaps forty dishes or so—would be placed on the table at the same time. During the Regency period, banquets were common. Yet, even at a dinner party for twenty people, fifteen to twenty separate foods might be presented at once. Two of the most famous banquets during the Regency were hosted by the crown prince who later became King George IV. Famous for his excesses in all areas of life, he did…