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Newsletter Steven Ferry

The Modern Butlers’ Journal, January 2019, The Wisdom of Butlers Past

Steven FerryThe Wisdom of Butlers Past

by Steven Ferry

Part 20 – Packing Suitcases

For years, the Institute has been training butlers on how to pack a suitcase, and in some cases, we have created our own techniques in order to achieve a specific goal in packing.

These techniques have been at variance with the ways other trainers suggest one pack a suitcase, and our problem with their methods is that they do not achieve the goal that we have set.

Reading through The Footman’s Directory and Butler’s Remembrancer, we were pleased to discover the exact same goal 200 years ago as the one to which we have been holding fast:

“As some wardrobes will not admit of the coats at full length, and as they must often be packed up into a small compass* for traveling, you must learn to fold them so that they may not be creased and rumpled, as that makes the handsomest coat look shabby on a gentleman’s back….The waistcoats and small clothes are easily done; but observe, the less they are folded the better.”

* There is no definition for this word in the English language that means something like “suitcase” (I checked my giant Oxford English Dictionary), but that is presumably what is meant here.

Extracted from the 1823 book, The Footman’s Directory and Butler’s Remembrancer, re-published in hardback by Pryor Publications.

You may obtain your discounted copy (with free s&h) by emailing the publisher: Mr. Pryor (alan AT pryor-publications.co.uk).

 

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.

 

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Newsletter Steven Ferry

The Modern Butlers’ Journal, December 2018, The Wisdom of Butlers Past

Steven FerryThe Wisdom of Butlers Past

by Steven Ferry

Part 19— Brushing Clothes

(Continued from the November MBJ) For removing grease from coats (or other items), the author suggests the butler remove it with his fingernails! Failing that, he should place thick brown paper on top of the stain and apply a hot (but not scorchingly hot, which will burn the paper and change the color of the coat) iron to it. The grease will migrate to the brown paper. The butler simply continues to apply a fresh patch of the brown paper to the area, until the brown paper absorbs no more oil. For any residue, dip a cloth in rubbing alcohol and rub the spot while the coat is still hot from the earlier step.

After this seemingly satisfactory outcome, the author then talks about when to apply or not apply Fuller’s Earth to a garment, when to darken it with “rotten stone” or lighten it with “pipe clay,” and when to use boiling water. Thank goodness for dry cleaners!

Talking of which, the author then describes how to (dry) clean a white coat using pipe clay, whitening, and bran. For any white coats worn in towns where smoke makes them very dirty, the author suggests wet cleaning the white coats with pipe clay, whitening, and stone blue (bluing?) mixed with a small amount of (non alcoholic) beer or vinegar, with optional Fuller’s Earth. As Fuller’s Earth is (bentonite) clay that is still used today to absorb oil, grease, animal waste, etc., it should be known that it also removes color, so as with the advice two centuries ago, do not apply it to colored fabrics.

 

Extracted from the 1823 book, The Footman’s Directory and Butler’s Remembrancer, re-published in hardback by Pryor Publications.

You may obtain your discounted copy (with free s&h) by emailing the publisher: Mr. Pryor (alanATpryor-publications.co.uk).

 

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.

 

Categories
Newsletter Steven Ferry

The Modern Butlers’ Journal, November 2018, The Wisdom of Butlers Past

Steven FerryThe Wisdom of Butlers Past

by Steven Ferry

Part 18— Brushing Clothes

Brushing clothes is another duty of the butler/valet and footman acting as a valet. The advice? Lay the clothes flat on a table, once dry, to brush them; or hang them on a wooden clothes horse (dumb valet) and beat them with a stick or a small whip, being careful not to strike the buttons and so break them.

One device one does not see much of these days, is a thin board with a slit in it, to slide under buttons and allow them to be cleaned without touching and dirtying the cloth of the garment. “Rub out the spots of dirt between your hands,” is one peculiar bit of advice.

Otherwise, there are complex instructions for brushing and folding a coat to fit into a “narrow compass,” (a carry-all), so that it is creased and rumpled the least, “as that makes the handsomest coat look shabby on a gentleman’s back.” The idea of folding items of clothing as little as possible, which carries through to our modern packing techniques, is central to the author’s concerns.

(To be continued in the next MBJ)

 

Extracted from the 1823 book, The Footman’s Directory and Butler’s Remembrancer, re-published in hardback by Pryor Publications.

You may obtain your discounted copy (with free s&h) by emailing the publisher: Mr. Pryor (alanATpryor-publications.co.uk).

 

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.