A Regency Warming Plate

It is common for me to come across late Victorian warming plates and dishes made of silver or silver plate, but I had never seen an earthenware version before. We were shopping in one of our regular antique shops and decided to purchase a mid Victorian European kitchen cupboard. This was not an impulse purchase, as we had actually been looking for one to fit beside our fireplace for a while.

As you can see it fits beautifully in beside the fireplace. These are wonderful as they are used to secure all the plate and silver of value. It has a locked draw on the top and bottom and shelves in the center section.

Anyways in purchasing this cupboard we also spotted an interesting stoneware warming plate. It had just come into the store that morning and was unlabelled. To add to this, Nic is amazing at bargaining and we ended up getting them both for less than their original total price, meaning that plate ended up being free.

On the way home I decided to play archaeologist and Google'd the maker and design. It was made by Rogers & Son in Stafforshire ca. 1820. I believe that this design was only produced from 1815-1825 and was made to celebrate the tour of an Indian Elephant called Chunee at the Covent Garden Theater, in England in 1810. One of the reasons that they may have stopped producing this design around 1825 could be because of the nature of his death.

Exert from Wikipedia
Chunee became dangerously violent towards the end of his life, attributed to an "annual paroxysm" (perhaps his musth) aggravated by a rotten tusk which gave him a bad toothache. On 26 February 1826, while on his usual Sunday walk along the Strand, Chunee ran amok, killing one of his keepers. He became increasingly enraged and difficult to handle over the following days, and it was decided that he was too dangerous to keep. The following Wednesday, 1 March, his keeper tried to feed him poison, but Chunee refused to eat it. Soldiers were summoned from Somerset House to shoot Chunee with their muskets. Kneeling down to the command of his trusted keeper, Chunee was hit by 152 musket balls, but refused to die. Chunee was finished off by a keeper with a harpoon or sword. The floor of his cage was deeply covered with his blood, and it was said that the sound of the elephant in agony was more alarming than the reports of the soldier's guns

More information about this story can be found at this blog.

The plate itself has a beautiful transfer design which is also on the raised base. This place is about 2inchs high and has a reservoir under the plate for warm water. The stoneware warms up quite quickly and can keep food warm for about 20 minutes. Normal hot water from the tap is very effective. It does not require the water to be boiling.

On the underside there is a large and small tube. From what I can work out based on trial and common sense you can pour the water into the larger spout and the shifted air is released from the smaller.

Anyways, we are both very happy in this plate and it's interesting provenance. It is wonderful to have such an amazing piece of everyday functional houseware.

Hand Embroidered Fire Screen

When living in a small cottage it can be hard to protect the complexion from a large open fire. It would easy to just leave the room or move away, but one still wants to keep warm, just not on the face. It could just be my own personal issue, but after an evening of sitting by the fire I find that my face is reddened, my skin feels more taunt and dryer. The solution is a wonderful birthday gift from my husband. While he was on a recent archaeological dig in Launceston, Tasmania, he stumbled across this beautiful hand embroidered personal fire screen in an antique shop. He believes that it dates back to the early to mid Victorian period.

 The fire screen where it is stored (high above where my kittens can not get at it) next to the portrait of the amazing General Garibaldi. The front of the screen is made of blue silk velvet with silk embroidery and silk fringing.

 The screen itself sits on a brass cross that is highly decorated with a section at the bottom made of ivory. The back of the screen is a plain silk taffeta.

The base is very heavy and beautifully decorated.

 When it is placed on a side table in front of the fire place it only shields the heat that radiates upwards, thereby protecting your head from the heat of the flames.

Finally a close up of the embroidery. The screen has been decorated using cross stitch to create a floral design (unfortunately it does not photograph very well). The crosses are actually quite large in size and are definitely hand sewn by someone with developing skills as the stitches are not quite even in all places.

I love this screen and have only seen one other like it and it was in no where near as nice a condition as this one is. I am very grateful to my husband Nic for being so considerate of my needs in this lovely gift. If anyone has any further information to add about the dating or history of fire screens please let me know as I have only just started learning about them. And now I should stop procrastinating over my gifts and get back to my studies.

Victorian Brass Skirt Lifter

I have decided to start blogging about the amazing historical items I find, buy or am given. As last week was my birthday I received some amazing gifts. The first that I am going to share is this gorgeous horse shoe design skirt lifter, which was a gift from my very good friend Sandy.

 

 It is a total of 6 inches long (15 cms) and the horeshoe is 2 inches wide (5 cms)

 The disks at the bottom are not fixed, but rather they spin so that if the fabric is pulled it can rotate or drop about half an inch before it releases it (or creates a tear, this should not happen though)

  It works like a clamp with the horseshoe moving downwards to release the pads at the bottom. The horseshoe is then pulled upwards till it reaches a groove and clamps on the fabric.

This type of skirt lifter was mass produced in the 1870s until the 1890s out of pressed brass. They are also an essential item for any fashionable lady seeking to protect the fabric in the train of her dress. These often have black woven ropes attached to the top that are then either clipped into a belt at the waist (for sports and cycling for more adventurous ladies) or looped around the wrist (for more graceful motions such as dancing).

I would love to find a more specific date for this skirt lifter. However, as it was a mass produced item it fails to have any datable markings. If anyone knows anything about this particular type of skirt lifter please feel free to let me know.

Regards,
Danielle