Van Huysum

The 18th Century Dutch van Huysum family is known for their flower paintings.

Justus van Huysum
Flowers in a vase on a stone slab, 1693
Source

Jan van Huysum
Flowers and Fruit
early 18th century
source

Francina Margaretha van Huysum
Vase of Flowers, 1729
source

In Wish With The Candles Emma Hastings notices a flower painting in Professor Justin Teylingen's dining room and he tells her it is a van Husum an ancestor recieved as payment for a debt. He doesn't identify which van Huysum painted it.

Hepplewhite Table

Hepplewhite is a famous British furniture maker and after his death, his wife published a book of furniture designs in his name, The cabinet-maker and upholsterer's guide.  Generally, a Hepplewhite table features wood inlay designs.

Plans for Hepplewhite Table tops

In Wish With The Candles Professor Justin Teylingen has an oval Hepplewhite dining table.

Second Empire Furniture

Second Empire style, also called Napoleon III style, is a French furniture style dating around 1850-1870. It focused on comfort and included elements of many earlier styles.

You can see an amazing green Second Empire sofa on an antique auction site here.

In Wish With The Candles Professor Justin Teylingen's house features Second Empire furniture.

Coq Au Vin

Coq au Vin is, like so many of the dishes in the Betty Neels books, French. It is chicken braised in wine, lardons (chunks of pork fat, similar to bacon), mushrooms and sometimes garlic.

 In Wish With The Candles Professor Justin Teylingen takes the Hastings women to an inn at Cerne Abbas where they have lobster cocktail, Coq au Vin and "a fresh fruit salad laced with Curaçao and veiled in whipped cream."

Lobster Cocktail

I had assumed Lobster Cocktail was like shrimp cocktail - shellfish and cocktail sauce in a glass. However, while the cocktail sauce may be included and it is served In a glass, the dish itself is more of a seafood salad with lobster meat, avocado, lettuce and sometimes brown bread with some kind of sauce.
In Wish With The Candles Professor Justin Teylingen takes the Hastings women to an inn at Cerne Abbas where they have lobster cocktail, Coq au Vin and "a fresh fruit salad laced with Curaçao and veiled in whipped cream."

Nailsea Glass

Nailsea Glass gets its name from the Nailsea Glassworks in Nailsea, Sommerset, UK (near Bristol), but refers to a type of decorative glass often made as end of day whimsies by glassblowers with a distinctive stripe pattern, it is a type.of canework (uses canes of decorated glass) blown lengthwise.

Simple Nailsea Flask

Nailsea Glassworks 1810 by unknown British artist

In Wish With The Candles Mrs. Hastings has "some nice little pieces of Nailsea Glass on the inglenook shelf." (The inglenook is a cozy "room within a room" around the fireplace.)

Carolean

Carolean or Restoration furniture is  a post Puritan English decorative style with many European and even East Indian influences. (Approx 1660-1680) The term Carolean is a reference to King Charles II (Latin Carolus) and the term Restoration refers to the restoration of European influences.

In Wish With The Candles Mrs. Hastings good furniture is mostly Recency era, but includes a Carolean worktable.

Suprème de Volaille Richelieu

Suprème de Volaille Richelieu is a chicken dish. It appeared in Augusta Escoffier's 1903 cookbook, Le Guide Culinare. A suprème is the best part of the animal and in chicken it refers to a boneless, skinless breast.

The recipe reads: Season the suprêmes, flour, egg and breadcrumb and shallow fry in clarified butter. Arrange on a dish, coat with half melted Maître d’Hôtel Butter  (a savory compounded butter with parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper),  decorate each suprême with 4 slices of truffle.

 In Wish With The Candles Professor Justin Teylingen recommends it to Emma Hastings. The British / American version of this dish is Chicken Supreme, which appears in A Dream Came True.

Carpetbag Steak

My Americaness is showing, because I want to call it "Carpetbagger Steak" and think of post-civil war United States. Actually, it's Welsh (a traditional working class dish from Mumbles, a historic oyster fishing village in Swansea, South Wales) and consists of a steak stuffed (with oysters - as in, a big hunk of meat has slits cut into it, oysters are stuffed in and then they are sewn shut, then it is cooked and the oyster and steak flavors blend. I don't personally like steak or oysters enough to think this sounds like anything but too much work, but apparently it is considered fancy now.

In Wish With The Candles Professor Justin Teylingen orders it.

William and Mary's Hospital, Southhampton

In Wish With The Candles (interestingly the hospital isn't named until Chapter 7) :

• Emma Hastings - Surgical Sister
• Sister Cox  "Mad Minnie" - Theatre Superintendent
• Staff Nurse Collins
• Nurse Jessop
• Nurse Fully
• Mr Soames- Sr Consultant Surgeon
• William Lunn "Little Willy"- Sr Registrar
• Mr Cyril Bone - senior anesthetist
• Peter Moore - houseman
• Mrs. Tate
• Tom - technician

Other Departments:

• Sister Madge Freeman, Men's Surgical
• Margaret, ICU Sister
• Sybil, Casulty Sister
• Angie Emmett, Orthopedics Sister
• Brenda, Women's Surgical Sister
• Sister Luce, fills in as theatre sister

Professor Justin Teylingen is visit in from Holland to showoff his new surgical techniques.

Treacle Tart

A tart made with a baked treacle (syrup) filling in a (usually) shortbread pastry.

Filling recipe

Mix:

1 cup golden syrup
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup bread crumbs
1 lemon, zested
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Pour into pastry and bake.

Son et Lumière

A Son et Lumière is a light show usually with live music and on a historic building.

In Wish With The Candles Professor Justin Teylingen recommends the Son et Lumière at Wijk bij Duurstede to Mrs. Hastings and then "just happens" to get seated next to them.

Castle Duurstede

Ford Popular

1959 Ford Popular

The Ford Popular, aka Ford Pop, was Britain's least expensive car, produced from 1953 to 1962. The pre-1959 models of the Popular had a commonly needed backup manual crank start.

In Wish With The Candles Emma Hastings drives the family car, a well used Ford Popular. Since the book takes place in 1969, the car would have been at least 7 years old.

Rolls-Royce Cornishe

 The Cornische is a 2 door version of the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow named from the French corniche, meaning a coastal road usually along the face of a cliff. In Wish With The Candles, Professor Justin Teylingen drives a black Rolls-Royce Cornische convertible.

Wish With The Candles

Wish With The Candles is Betty Neels 11th book originally published in 1972. It features Emma Hastings and Professor Justin Teylingen. Since Emma is stated to be born in 1945 and 26 years old, the book takes place in 1971.

The title comes from something the Professor tells Emma when she gets her birthday cake:
"Blow your hardest Emma. Remember you'll get a wish with the candles."

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