November 15, 1906 · Hotel Majestic, Philadelphia · Special Dinner commemorating the visit of the Italian Cruiser Ettore Fieramosca to Philadelphia
The Italian cruiser Ettore Fieramosca was a protected cruiser of the Regia Marina, launched 1888 and named for the medieval Italian condottiero (mercenary captain) Ettore Fieramosca (1476–1515). The ship’s visit to Philadelphia in November 1906 was part of Italian naval diplomacy of the early Edwardian period; the dinner at the Hotel Majestic was hosted in her honour by the Consuls of France and Italy.
The cover is an exceptional piece of Art Nouveau commercial illustration. A medieval minstrel in grey hooded cloak reads from a song-book beside a wine cask bearing a red shield with heraldic lions. Above, a band of woodcut-style figures dines beneath a row of trees in a stylised forest. The colour palette — muted greens, ochre, terracotta red, and ivory — and the Gothic black-letter heading “The Majestic Grotto” reflect the medieval revival current in American decorative arts at the turn of the twentieth century.
The Hotel Majestic stood at Broad Street and Girard Avenue in Philadelphia and was one of the city’s principal Gilded Age hotels for visiting dignitaries and formal receptions. Its banqueting rooms — including the celebrated Dutch Room — hosted municipal functions, diplomatic dinners, and society events from the 1890s through the 1920s.
Visual style: Art Nouveau cover with medieval-style minstrel figure, wine cask with heraldic crest, and woodland banquet scene.
What you receive
- Three print sizes: 8×10, 11×14, 16×20 inches (300 DPI, ready for any home printer or framing shop).
- Two versions of each size: a pure print (no added text) and a museum print (with a small caption: restaurant or ship, year, and source).
- A 1–2 page PDF with the menu’s historical context.
- One ZIP file, instantly downloadable after checkout.
About the source
This menu is preserved in the Buttolph Collection of Menus at The New York Public Library and is in the public domain in the United States. The Menu Press has curated, digitally restored, and reformatted the work for modern printing.
