Menu dated 3rd November 1909, (Saint Hubertus Day).

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Luncheon menu for a Royal Hunt at Döberitz (near Berlin) hosted by His Imperial and Royal Majesty Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Prussia to mark Saint Hubertus Day: the Patron Saint of hunters

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On the 3rd November each year, the German Emperor held a special hunt and banquet to mark the Feast Day for Saint Hubertus who is the patron saint of hunters.

This menu is from the Emperor’s banquet in 1909 when guests partook in post-hunt offerings of game soup, wild boar’s head and platters of cold stuffed wild ducks all decorated in full plumage with their heads decoratively re-attached.

The Emperor’s Saint Hubertus Day banquet was one of the highlights of the imperial calendar and always took place at Döberitz, between Berlin and Potsdam, which was home to the kennels of the Konigliche Meute – the royal hunting hounds.

The Governess to the Kaiser’s children, Anne Topham, remembered how:

“The Emperor invariably gives a hunting dinner on the evening of this day, when all the gentlemen invited appear in pink, each one wearing in the buttonhole of his coat the spray of oak-leaves which is the trophy presented to everybody "in at the death”.

The Governess also remembered how the Saint Hubertus Day hunt and banquet was one of the few hunting events attended by the Empress:

“The Empress, although very fond of riding, was not at all keen on hunting, and rarely appeared except on St. Hubert's Day, which is a very ceremonial occasion, the horses being decorated with green ribbons, and every one riding in pink with chimney-pot hat, whereas on ordinary occasions the round velvet hunting-cap and black coat may be worn”.