Shall we dish about dishes and, while we're at it, the women hovering over them?

We are talking about the idealized homemaker: white, married, middle class, perfect in every way, not a hair out of place, nails painted, impeccably made up—the hausfrau who can whip up a roast leg of lamb with parsnip mash and madeira sauce without breaking a sweat. The leftovers (if there are any) go neatly into the Tupperware container.

That not-yet-entirely-extinct species, seen presiding over vintage Frigidaire ads and in the persona of Mad Men's Betty Draper (minus the vodka gimlet, perhaps), is the thematic presence behind the beautifully designed kitchen cookware and tableware objects in "The Main Dish"—an exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of