You Will Find Me at Barney's Paradise. Saturday August 11, 1900. Bring Your Appetite at 12:30pm Menu

Die Cut Dinner Invitation. (n. p.). 1900. Unpaginated, though 4 pages/panels, in the form of top-hinge invitation. Illustrated with light brown concentric lines to outer panels; text in holograph script, in purple ink, with a lighter hand to some words on inner panels. Invitation to front panel, menu to inner panels, and "souvenir" poem to final panel. Oblong format, die cut in a "clam" shape. 3-1/2" x 6-7/8".

An adorable steamer clam shaped invitation to a lunch-time clam bake, which we surmise came from the New England environs. The food offerings, which show a bit of humor in their presentation, are many: "Manhattan (?)", periwinkles on the half-shell, mussels, barnacles, "Salt Kod", menhaden, starfish, "Klam Kakes", raw eels and olives, escalloped sponges, chowder, "Klams (snouted)", turnips, liver, carrots, "Sponge-Kake", "Dressing (Buryeas)", brown bread, "Cream Kakes", "Shampain phrappe", "Dried pease on ice", Pastry-Dried apple pie, Pork pie, Printers' pi, Boiled peaches, Raw onions, Fried watermelon, Chinese crackers, Coffee, Limburger, Cordials Presidencias", Sazerac and, curiously enough, "Svensk Banco [Swedish Bank?]". We note at the bottom that the attendees will be treated to "Speech from ***". Hmmm? We suspect the concluding poem, entitled "Souvenir", to be original, wherein the host wishes the friends invited to remember kindly the companionable meal: "'Tis then we'll homeward wend our way, / Full-surfeited with all our pleasure; / And kindly hold in thought this day, / That adds new wealth to Memory's treasure." A rare survivor from over a century ago, documenting a memorable mid-day meal. Near fine.