Analysis of Daily Expenses of the Court Kitchen of the Żagań Princes in 1878‒1889

Abstract

The article presents the sphere of everyday life practices in the second half of the 19th century through analysis of eating habits of the House of Talleyrand-Périgord, the Reich princes. The basis of analysis are expenses from ducal court kitchen from Sagan from the times of Duke Louis Napoléon de Talleyrand-Périgord (1863‒1898). The expenses present daily calculations of ordered products with their prices and quantity in the years 1878‒1889. The ducal family shared time between Paris, an estate in Valençay, a flat in Berlin and a palace in Sagan in the Lower Silesia. There they celebrated ostentatiously both the family meetings (birthday of princes Pauline) and social events, especially in 1881 (the wedding ceremony of the Duke’s daughter
”Dolly”) and in 1886 (the 100th anniversary of purchase of the duchy of Sagan by the Duke of Courland Biron), in which participated noble representatives of aristocratic European houses.