’Twill serve to put hinges and odd things in.
Latten-ware was a kind of brass. It may be noted that no tin appears on this list, nor in many of the inventories of these early Connecticut colonists. Thomas Hooker had several “tynnen covers.”
Brass utensils were far from cheap. Handsome brass mortars were expensive. Brass kettles were worth three pounds apiece. No wonder the Indians wished their brass kettles buried with them as their most precious possessions. The brass utensils of William Whiting, of Hartford, in 1649, were worth twenty pounds; Thomas Hooker’s, about fifteen pounds. Among other utensils named in the inventories of some neighbors of Mr. Hooker were an “iron to make Wafer cakes,” “dyitt vessels,” “shredin knife,” “flesh fork.” Robert Day had a “brass chaffin dish, 3s, lether bottle 2s, brass posnet 4s, brass pott 6s, brass kettle 2. 10s.” A chafing-dish in olden times was an open box of wire into which coals were thrust.
Dame Huit, of Windsor, Conn., had these articles, among others:—
| 1 Cullender 2 Pudding pans. In kitchen in brasse & Iron potts, ladles, skimmers, dripping pans, posnets, and other pans | 6. 10s. |
| A pair Andirons 2 Brandii 2 Pair Crooks 3 pair of tonges and Iron Spitts pot-hangers | 1. |
| 1 Fornace | 2. |
| Tubbs pales churnes butter barrels & other woodin implements | 2. |
The “two Brandii” were brand-irons or brond-yrons, a kind of trivet or support to set on the andirons. Sometimes they held brands or logs in place, or upon them dishes could be placed. Toasting-irons and broiling-irons are named. “Scieufes,” or sieves, were worth a shilling apiece.
Eleazer Lusher, of Dedham, Mass., in 1672, owned cob-irons, trammels, firepans, gridirons, toasting-fork, salt pan, brand pan, mortar, pestle, box iron heaters, kettles, skillets, spits, frying-pan, ladles, skimmers, chafing-dishes, pots, pot-hooks, and creepers.
The name creeper brings to our consideration one of the homeliest charms of the fireplace—the andirons. Creepers were the lower and smaller andirons placed between the great firedogs. The word is also applied to a low cooking spider, which could be pushed in among the embers. Cob-irons were the simplest form of andirons, and usually were used merely to support the spit; sometimes they had hooks to hold a dripping-pan under the spit. Sometimes a fireplace showed three pairs of andirons, on which logs could be laid at various heights. Sometimes a single pair of andirons had three sets of hooks or branches for the same purpose. They were made of iron, copper, steel, or brass, often cast in a handsome design. The andirons played an important part in the construction and preservation of a fire.
And the construction of one of these great fires was no light or careless matter. Whittier, in his Snow-Bound, thus tells of the making of the fire in his home:—
We piled with care our nightly stack