Across the ocean, the pineapple took on other
symbolic meanings in England's American colonies.
The colonies were then a land of small, primitive
towns and settlements where homes served as the hubs
of most community activity. Visiting was the primary
means of entertainment, cultural intercourse and
news dissemination. The concept of hospitality--the
warmth, charm and style with which guests were taken
into the home--was a central element of the
society's daily emotional life.
Creative Food
Display in Colonial America
Creative food display--the main
entertainment during a formal home visit--was a
means by which a woman declared both her personality
and her family's status. Within the bounds of their
family's means, hostesses sought to outdo each other
in the creation of memorable, fantasy-like dining
room scenes. At such feasts, tabletops resembled
small mountain ranges of tiered, pyramided and
pedestaled foodstuffs often drizzled and webbed in
sugar, studded with china figurines, festooned with
flowers and interwoven with garlands of pine and
laurel. Dinners were extravaganzas of visual
delights, novel tastes, new discoveries and
congenial conversation that went on for hours.
Rare Pineapple:
King of Colonial Fruits
Ships brought in preserved pineapples from
Caribbean islands as expensive sweetmeats--pineapple
chunks candied, glazed and packed in sugar. The
actual whole fruit was even more costly and
difficult to obtain. Wooden ship travel in the
tropics was hot, humid and slow, often rotting
pineapple cargoes before they could be landed. Only
the speediest ships and most fortuitous weather
conditions could deliver ripe, wholesome pineapples
to the confectionery shops of cities such as Boston,
Philadelphia, Annapolis and Williamsburg.
A hostesses' ability to have a pineapple for an
important dining event said as much about her rank
as it did about her resourcefulness, given that the
street trade in available fresh pineapples could be
as brisk as it was bitchy. So sought after were the
prickly fruits that colonial confectioners sometimes
rented them to households by the day. Later, the
same fruit was sold to other, more affluent clients
who actually ate it. As you might imagine, hostesses
would have gone to great lengths to conceal the fact
that the pineapple that was the visual apogee of
their table display and a central topic of their
guests' conversation was only rented.
The Colonial Pineapple Trade
While fruits in general--fresh,
dried, candied and jellied--were the major
attractions of the community's appetite and dining
practices, the pineapple was the true celebrity. Its
rarity, expense, reputation and striking visual
attractiveness made it the ultimate exotic fruit. It
was the pineapple that came to literally crown the
most important feasts: often held aloft on special
pedestals as the pinnacle of the table's central
food mound.
Pineapple as Hospitality Symbol
In larger, well-to-do homes, the dining room
doors were kept closed to heighten visitors'
suspense about the table being readied on the other
side. At the appointed moment, and with the maximum
amount of pomp and drama, the doors were flung open
to reveal the evening's main event. Visitors
confronted with pineapple-topped food displays felt
particularly honored by a hostess who obviously
spared no expense to ensure her guests' dining
pleasure.
In this manner, the fruit which was the visual
keystone of the feast naturally came to symbolize
the high spirits of the social events themselves;
the image of the pineapple coming to express the
sense of welcome, good cheer, human warmth and
family affection inherent to such gracious home
gathering.
Pineapple as Artistic Motif
It is hardly surprising that this communal symbol
of friendship and hospitality also became a favorite
motif of architects, artisans and craftsmen
throughout the colonies. They announced the
hospitality of a mansion with carved wood or molded
mortar pineapples on its main gate posts such as
those shown here at a home in historic Haddonfield,
New Jersey. They incorporated huge copper and brass
pineapples in the weather vanes of their most
important public buildings. They sculpted pineapples
into door lintels; stenciled pineapples on walls and
canvas mats; wove pineapples into tablecloths,
napkins, carpets and draperies; and cast pineapples
into metal hot plates. There were whole pineapples
carved of wood; pineapples executed in the finest
china kilns; pineapples painted onto the backs of
chairs and tops of chests.
Tabletop Whimsy
Whimsical pineapple shapes and interpretations
became a ubiquitous form for "fun" food
creations and general table decorations throughout
the 1700 and 1800s. There were pineapple-shaped
cakes, pineapple-shaped gelatin molds, candies
pressed out like small pineapples, pineapples molded
of gum and sugar, pineapples made of creamed ice,
cookies cut like pineapples and pineapple shapes
created by arrangements of other fruits. There were
also ceramic bowls formed like pineapples, fruit and
sweet trays incorporating pineapple designs, and
pineapple pitchers, cups and even candelabras.
During the last century, the art of food display
centered around the pineapple has faded to a quaint
craft now largely associated with the making of
certain kinds of Christmas decorations. These
holiday fabrications are one of the few vestiges of
an era when all life literally revolved around the
dining room table; a less complicated era that left
us the enduring icon of the colonial pineapple, a
truly American fruit symbolizing our founding
society's abiding commitment to hospitality as well
as its fondest memories of families, friends and
good times.
