Behaving in a Golden Age Tavern

[Mission]

Here are some more tavern images.

Tavern Interior, Adriaen van Ostade (1680)

Scene in the Tavern, Adriaen van Ostade (mid 17th c.)

[Jib]

I notice children again in this image. And large ceramic gourd shaped bottles at the feet of the drinker. Did you buy your drink by the bottle?

Edited August 23, 2013 by Jib

[jendobyns]

I'd have to find my notes, or talk to the person I know who is my go-to authority on colonial taverns to be sure, but I seem to remember bills in court cases for things like a pitcher of beer. If it was small beer, and that is what was generally consumed, the alcohol content wouldn't add up to that much. It's pretty much liquid nutrition and a source of safe fluids.

As for the children, the were everywhere, probably more so than today in our protective society. Isolation from the grow-ups can only happen when there is either economic means to hire help, or older children to provide care for the younger. And some "apprenticeships" started at a surprisingly young age (although they may have been an informal form of adoption in some cases).

[Jib]

I also noticed that a broken or dropped pipe is in almost every image...

[Mission]

They had an exhibit on 17th c. life at the Smithsonian a while back that featured hundreds of broken pipes unearthed from a trash heap or something like that. Get yourself a clay pipe and it won't take you long to understand why.

[William Brand]

The only pipe I own is a broken one, which is so period appropriate. Please keep posting images. They're wonderful.

[jendobyns]

Pipes are great. They are useful in dating layers at dig sites. Hadn't we talked about them somewhere on this forum before?

[Jib]

Pipes: the GAOP equivalent of cigarettes today. "Just throw your butts anywhere shipmates!"