I've been listening in on the exchange about confectionaries and restaurant
china, and have to ask, what exactly is an confectionary?  At Cahawba
(Alabama) we had several Confectionaries dating to the 1850s,  none of which
have been excavated yet - however, looking at the advertisements they
generated, I didn't think that the word Confectionary implied restaurant
style dining. I thought it was more of a "take-out" situation. Later in the
decade, some of our Confectioners added a restaurant adjacent to the
original business, but the ads were very clear that this was in addition the
Confectionary.  In fact, since the term "grocery" in that era implied
liquor, I assumed that the Confectionary was more like the grocers we are
familiar with today - or more specifically, an upscale specialized grocery.
At Cahawba, they seemed to cater to the "young at heart" and often even
stocked toys right along side the sweets.  Some also sold tobacco and
seafood.  When they added a restaurant,  oysters seem to have been a
specialty.

So, does anyone want to comment on what exactly the 19th century term
"confectionary" meant?  Defining the term precisely (& perhaps locally) will
have implications about what one would expect to find in these sites.  (For
example, I wasn't expecting to find a lot of dinnerware on these sites
unless I had evidence that a restaurant was opened in connection with the
specific confectionary.) I would expect instead evidence of shipping barrels
and storage jars.

Here is a sampling of the items that were advertised in Cahawba's various
1850s Confectionaries:


Candies, Assorted Pickles, Dried Fruits and Nuts,	Preserved
Fruits,Sardines,Brandy Fruits,Lobsters,Yeast Powders, Corn Starch	,
Soda and butter Crackers,Soap,Snuff,Chewing Tobacco,Cigars,Smoking Tobacco,
Garden Seed, Catsup,
Matches,Pepper sauce,Pipes,Sugar Biscuits, Chocolate, Green and Black
Teas,Green Fruits,Salmons and Lobsters, Raisins,Ground coffee, Citrons,
French & English Mustards,Currants, macaroni,Prunes and
Dates,Vermicilli,Figs, Preserves & Jelly,Cheese,Pie & Brandy Fruits, Roasted
Veal,	Calves head, Roasted Venison,	Shad,	Turtle Soup,Fresh
mackerel,Clams,Tripe sausage, Minced meat for pies, Olives, Capers, Cheese,
Sourkrout


Food for thought.


Linda Derry
Site Director
Old Cahawba Archaeological Site
719 Tremont Street
Selma, AL 36701-5446
334/875-2529
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On 
> Behalf Of George Myers
> Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 7:54 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Confectionary Excavations
> 
> 
> A lot of that heavy duty restaurant and diner ceramic was 
> also made in New York State under the Buffalo and Syracuse 
> mark. I stopped to look at the large factory commuting to NY 
> State University at Buffalo/Amherst.
> 
> George Myers
>