PIE WITH FISH HEADS STICKING OUT FULL

In fact, even bringing fresh flowers into an 18th-century dwelling can really affect it. While these pieces are beautiful and life-like, Keller explains that “we really have to take into consideration ‘off-gassing’ from objects, something which can degrade our artifacts. The $90 million industry rose in popularity after World War II as a way to help Americans identify and choose dishes on Japanese restaurant menus.

Similar concerns keep curators from buying faux food from the most famous purveyors: Japan’s fake-food manufacturers. (Cooking was often done right on the historic hearth.) Additionally, in the U.S., conservation concerns raised in the 1980s led curators to shy away from placing foods that can rot or spill on or around what are often period antiques, original flooring, or brick work. In England and Australia, this is still common, but in the United States, especially in warm, humid areas, spoilage and pests have always been a problem. (The next step is to dab most of it off with a paper towel.) Courtesy of Liza Maliaįor most of American house museum history, staff cooked or gathered real food to lay out on tables and hearths. Teresa Teixeira slops watered-down acrylic paint onto faux bread. “Food brings the room to life, helps make the house a home,” says Amanda Keller, Associate Curator of Historic Interiors and Household Accessories at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (CWF).

The painstaking research, cooking, and molding behind each “faux food” is a little-known industry within the museum world. The fake fish, the fake meat pies, and even the fake fruit were carefully placed by curators at Colonial Williamsburg who, like their peers at other historic houses turned museums, aim to present a lifelike and historically accurate experience. Laid out with cutlery and dinnerware, it looks ready to welcome guests, or perhaps a family that is about to gather at the table.Įxcept that it’s not.

PIE WITH FISH HEADS STICKING OUT FULL

The morning daylight streams in through a wavy glass windowpane to illuminate a table full of food: There is a platter of grilled fish surrounded by lemons, little meat pies arranged on a plate, a bowl of fruit, and even a small pitcher full of frothy punch.

Pie with fish heads sticking out