3-008-718 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The banquet on board the Viceroy of Egypt's yacht, the Faid Gihaad, [on the River Thames, London], 1862. 'The decorations of the table, even putting out of question the plate, which is said to have been worth a million sterling, were of almost unprecedented beauty. Six noble pines [ie pineapples] the perfection of shape and colour, seemed to have been placed along the princely board only that they might be cast into comparative insignificance by a seventh, the largest in its circumference and length, and the weightiest by nearly a pound, that has ever been grown in England. There were covers for forty-eight guests, before each of whom was placed a novel service of silver, holding the wine-glasses, the sweetmeats, the salads, and the minor concomitants of the dinner-table which would be required by every person'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.