![]() On the shelf below is a nice turned bowl. WoodwareĪ wooden salt box (4) hanging to the left of the fireplace has a traditional sloping lid and carved hanging loop. Smaller iron things on the shelves and nearby include two pairs of sugar cutters (3), a rushlight holder (7), lemon squeezer (1), and vegetable cutter (2) – suitable for hacking up root vegetables and big cabbages. ![]() Some are probably 19th century like the mug, and others could be much earlier, e.g. (There’s an old oven in one of the walls you can’t see.) Selected utensils have been numbered to help with the discussion. Many big kitchens acquired fancier mechanised roasting equipment and cooking ranges or stoves well before 1900, but I understand this room was in use, unmodernised, until 1946. Out of sight above the mantel-shelf are racks for roasting spits, and a cradle-spit for roasting small birds or joints of meat is hanging down into the upper left of the picture. The assorted spoons, ladles, and skimmers look timeless you’d have to examine them hands-on to try guessing their dates. The urn to the left has a brass tap that may be relatively modern. There’s also an “idleback” kettle tilter to help with pouring, probably not there originally. The crane may have arrived in the kitchen in the 17th or 18th century to replace a simpler kind of hanger. In the fireplace the classic iron kettle hanging on a chimney crane is centuries-old way of heating water. When and where did each pot, plate, or tool start its useful life? Does knowing matter? For myself, I enjoy seeing a kaleidoscope of things that have belonged to the house over the generations – but it’s still good to know what’s what.* What can you identify in the picture? Ironware The Tudor open hearth with old iron pots and logs in a smoke-blackened fireplace is wonderful, but when did that protective fireguard appear? The things on the shelves come from various different periods in the life of the house. The picture above is of a 16th century English manor house kitchen, amazingly unchanged in its basic structure. Whenever I travel I look out for historic houses, especially if they have kitchens worth visiting, and enjoy picking out bits and pieces for a closer look.Īnd yet the room often isn’t the way it would have looked at any time in its life. See how many things you recognise before reading lower down the page. ![]() ![]() Open fireplace 10ft across in the 16th century kitchen at Cotehele House, Cornwall, England. ![]()
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