From Mystic Tea Room
In this installment of "From the Land of Tea," we take a sneak-peek look at an upcoming page that will eventually be on display to the public. As a Patreon supporter, you have access to the page one full year before the public does.
- Patreon Release Date: September 28th, 2024.
- Public Release Date: September 28th, 2025.
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Patreon Release September 28, 2025!
Today i return with pleasure to Vintage Tea Rooms by Location -- in this case to the tea rooms of Italy -- with a gallery of very old postcards, dating back to before World War One, each accompanied by a descriptive caption. These images will eventually be on display at the Mystic Tea Room web site for every tea lover and tea leaf reader to enjoy, but my Patrons, who pay as little as $8.00 per month to support my work, will have access to them one full year before the public does.
To place this work in context, please read the following introductory pages
Italy Tea Room Gallery, in alphabetical order by name of city or town.
Florence
Giacosa's Tea Rooms, Florence, Italy, RPPC postcard, circa1907. Continental European cards of the early era often advertised establishments with the English term "Tea Room" as a lure to British and American tourists. Giacosa's Tea Rooms is decorated in the Italian manner, with murals and parquet flooring,, but is furnished in the British or Scottish manner with simple wooden tables and chairs in the Arts and Crafts style.
Genoa
Genova - Hotel Astoria and Belgrano - Jardin d'Hiver - Tea Room, circa 1910. The Winter Garden Tea Room at the Hotal Astoria and Belgrano in Genova (Genoa, Italy) is outfitted with small, square tea-tables laid out in the popular diamond pattern, covered with embroidered white tablecloths and furnished with caned wooden chairs. Three entire sides of the room, as well as the ceiling are made of panelled glass. The floor is parquet wood and there are vases of flowers and ferns on every table.
The back of this card contains a great deal of text. We learn that the Hotel Astoria & Belgrano is located at Via Serra N.1 on the Plazza Brignole in Genova and that the card is number 01059, made by Star Foto-Tecnico, H. N. Marconi, Genova. At the lower left is an information box that is, frankly, difficult to decipher: "Societa S.A.L.C. - C. E. CALZA -- Amm Deleg." is meaningless to me, but it seems to point to a management team led by C.E. Calza that had "Late Management" (meaning former management) of the tea rooms at The Hotel Savoy and Claridge's in London, The Knickerbocker and Waldorf Astoria hotels in New York City, and the Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Next comes the line "Stessa Casa: Garessio: Miramonti Grand Hotel, Albergo S. Bernardo." Stessa Casa means "same house" -- perhaps indicating that the same management team operated the tea room at the Miramonti Grand Hotel in the italian village of Garessio, in the province of Cuneo, in the Piedmont region of Italy, under the direction of Albergo S. Bernardo.
Milan
Tea-Room Charitas (presso [formerly] Caffe Cova, Milano, Via Manzoni I (Near the Scala), circa 1910. The Scala opera house is built on an opulent scale and deserves a nearby tea room of similar magnificence. The Tea-Room Charitas is located in what appears to be an imperial ballroom with curved walls, clerestory windows, and a multitude of chandelier lights and potted palms. The wooden tables and chairs are set with white linen cloths.
Jardon d'Hiver, de l'Hotel du Nord et des Anglais, Milan, C. Gallia, proprietor, circa 1910. The Winter Garden of the Hotel of the North and of the English features potted palms, multiple light fixtures, and a mixture of rattan garden furniture and conventional wooden chairs as a lure to British tourists. On the card's back we learn that this is postcard number 6526 of the "Urania" series published by the Graphishes Institut, Berlin S.W. 68 in Germany.
Pallanza
Majestic and Grand Hotel, Pallanza (Lago Maggiore) - Tea-Room, circa 1910. Lake Maggiore is the second largest lake in Italy and the largest in southern Switzerland. The lake and its shoreline are divided between the Italian regions of Piedmont and Lombardy and the Swiss canton of Ticino. The tea room's decor features tiled floors, rattan garden seating, and elaborate trompe-l'oeil murals featuring trellis work and flowers; it seems to be open to the outdoors on one side.
catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
The Mystic Tea Room
Special thanks to my dear husband and creative partner nagasiva yronwode for illustrations, scans, and clean-ups.
See Also
