Making Consumption Conspicuous: Transgressive Topics Go Mainstream

Abstract

Consider the eighteen-karat gold dinner service commissioned from Tiffany's by Judge Elbert H. Gary, the first chairman of the board of U.S. Steel. Despite some attrition over the years, there were 566 pieces, more than 270 pounds of gold, when the set was auctioned at Sotheby's in 1994. This was service for eighteen: five sizes of plates; dishes for ice cream, almonds, and salt; six kinds of knives, six of forks, and four of spoons; goblets for water and champagne; and a commensurate assortment of serving pieces, including a spoon designed for oscar sauce, something a Google search did not help me identify. According to Gary family lore, the set was used only once, at a dinner for the Sultan of Turkey; maybe somebody noticed that 18K gold scratches easily. The shiny golden photographs in the Sotheby's catalog illuminate our understanding of Thorstein Veblen's phrase "conspicuous consumption" easily as much as Veblen's writing illuminates the meaning of the oscar sauce spoon. 1

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