Chats on Old Copper and Brass

by Fred. W. Burgess

Domestic Brasswork.

In mediæval days the metal-work was "home made," that is to say, it was the work of retainers and those who were employed upon an estate. The old smiths not only worked in iron but wrought copper and brass, and the founders were building up a reputation; and their chief men were laying down rules for the guidance of the craftsmen. The influence exerted upon the metal-work of this country by the trade guilds of London is referred to in [Chapter VI]. In their prosperity no doubt the kitchens of the once powerful guilds were filled with cooking vessels indicative of the feasts held by the freemen of the different crafts. Some may say there are still evidences of such feasts; but most of the cooking vessels of early days perished in the Great Fire, although doubtless there are relics of a later period to be found in the kitchens and cellars of the Guildhall and some of the lesser halls.

Some of the companies, if they have lost their treasures, still possess records which are helpful to the antiquary, and we naturally turn to the parchments and books of the Worshipful Company of Founders, and there, appropriately enough, it is written that at one time they had jurisdiction over the manufacture of candlesticks, buckles, spurs, stirrups, straps, lavers, pots, ewers, and basins of brass and latten. The mark of the mystery was early made a ewer, a ewer and two candlesticks being given to the Founders in 1590, when they obtained a grant of arms; the motto they adopted was: "God is the only Founder."

The foundries of the craftsmen, workers, and casters of brass, latten, and kindred alloys in London were chiefly in and near Lothbury, among their most noted products being candlesticks and spice mortars—two staples which have become nearly obsolete, although none would say that the founding of metal is as yet an obsolete craft. Thus it is change and development are seen everywhere in production. The chief privileges of the Founders have gone, although they still take some little part in the stamping of weights and measures; but that, too, has become a Government duty. The Founders have some interesting pieces of plate, but not much copper. Their best example of their own craft is the ancient poor-box of copper which was presented to the Company by Mr. Stephen Pilchard in 1653, the year in which he was Upper Warden.

The feeding of man has always been the first duty of those who took charge of domestic arrangements, and we can readily understand that the caldron or cooking-pot was the earliest vessel. Its use may be regarded as universal, for it is found to have existed everywhere (see [Chapter VIII]). In mediæval England the feasting of the poor and the feeding of scores of retainers in the baronial halls and in the great ecclesiastical buildings, where hospitality and charity were rife, necessitated immense boiling-pots. Some of those referred to under "Domestic Utensils" ([Chapter VIII]) seem to some too large for practical purposes. It may, however, be pointed out that there are many large cooking-pots in use even at the present time; and copper caldrons of large size are used in hospitals and infirmaries. Quite recently there appeared in the public Press photographs of a well-known Countess making an Irish stew at Liberty Hall, Dublin, stirring round the contents with a wooden stirrer and lading out bowlfuls of soup with a metal scoop; it was food for the sufferers through the strike at that time going on in Dublin. It is thus that the poor of all ages have been fed. As kitchen operations were confined to lesser areas and smaller vessels were needed by individual families when patriarchal systems were broken up, they were but replicas in miniature of the larger caldrons and vessels which had become too large.

FIG. 11.—BRASS AQUAMANILE (SEVENTEENTH CENTURY).
(In the British Museum.)

It is wisely said, "Fingers were made before spoons," a fact true enough, but as time went on and the habits and customs of men and women became less rough, although as yet hardly refined, a need sprang up for utensils for personal use. Hitherto cooking forks and spoons were used in the kitchen, but the hunting-knife mostly served at table. It is true spoons were in use in very early times and even by the common people. At first of iron or wood, afterwards made of brass and latten, they are found wherever there are remains of mediæval dwellings. A Scotchman is said to have declared that "the discovery of hot broth was an epoch in the evolution of man, and that as the ladle is to the pot so is the spoon to the bowl."

Such brass ewers and basins, known as aquamaniles, mostly of bronze (one of Continental make is illustrated in Fig. 11) were used for the purpose of washing the hands, over which the water was poured. They were used in connection with bowls. Another type of laving ewer is that of the gemellions, made in pairs, one portion being held under a person's hands while water was poured out of the spouted bowl. Gemellions seem to have been the somewhat clumsy prototypes of the more convenient jug and bowl of later days. The use of ewers and basin was very necessary both before and after meals when knives and spoons were little used and it was no uncommon thing for two persons to eat out of one dish.

In mediæval days even domestic articles were frequently decorated, for English and European metal-workers had caught the figure work of the Oriental school. Their ornament took the form of hunting and battle scenes. Sometimes patrons were eulogized, and flattering inscriptions covered the objects wrought for them by their servile dependents. In Fig. 18 there is shown a bucket or bath vessel now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, rather an unusual piece of early metal-work and an interesting mediæval curio. Not long ago a similar bucket was dug up in the neighbourhood of Weybridge.

We are apt to regard with disdain what we term the grandmotherly legislation which tampers with the liberty of the subject. The present day, however, is not alone remarkable for regulations by which the home life of the nation is controlled. The Norman law which ordered "lights out" when curfew rang cut short the "overtime" of the worker of that day. So stringent was the enforcement of that law that not a glimmer of light must be seen after the appointed time. To darken or extinguish the dying fire on the hearth the couvre de feu became a feature. Such covers of well authenticated antiquity are rare; the one illustrated in Fig. 12 is a well-preserved example now in the Bolton Museum.