I have a set of items which look like salvers, but if so they are unusually small. The total diameter is 12 cm and the diameter of the flat part is 10 cm.
Obviously bottles could be put on top of them,
but what do you think they were originally meant to be used for 250 years ago considering their small size?
I am not sure that bottles would have been put on the table in 1772 as wine would, I think, have been decanted into other containers. Your small salvers or waiters could have been for these wine jugs. I don’t believe they would have been for condiment bottles (i.e. oil, vinegar, etc) as these would have been in a purpose-made cruet.
Phil
Yes, wine would have been decanted but
wine jugs sound reasonable to me.
Many thanks!
Ebenezer Coker, London, circa 1770.
Ebenezer Coker, London 1772. But that wasn’t the question…
My guess, such small salvers would be on Milady’s dressing table.
Or they might be for visiting cards, which were very small.
Hi Bronwen
I also previously considered that they might have been intended for cards. However, there are five of them, all from the same year and maker and I thought it unlikely that someone would like to order that many card waiters.
But on the other hand, I don’t know much about how people did things at that time.
I had the same thought about the “calling card” speculation - hard to imagine anyone buying a set of them. A grand house would have a grand entrance, for receiving visitors. I also think they’re a bit small for that use - most of the Georgian examples I’ve seen have been more like 18cm - 24cm.
Hmmmmm, I do love all these puzzles!
My next thought - I had not considered the number of trays, salvers, whatevers - is that they might have been trays for small containers of some sort. Such as glass fingerbowls for cleaning the fingers after eating certain foodstuffs.
Believe it or not, I was once faced with cut glass finger bowls. Luckily, being rather a Georgian fan, I knew what to do. A dinner companion did not, poor fellow.
Five inches is quite enough size to satisfy most needs if you use it properly.
Footmen were hired by the inch too, taller ones were considered more useful and paid higher wages.
An important household might have had a half dozen or more footmen. In those days corridors weren’t a thing. If you wanted to get into another room you went through two or three less important rooms. Each room had double doors leading into the next and each door needed a footman or sometimes two to open each door.
And each footman would have his own salver for delivering visiting cards and messages and, yes if requested a glass of hock, madeira, port or brandy.
Don’t think of 18th century houses as larger versions of your own modern home, think of them as a multi-cell organ where each servant had his or her assigned territory and duties associated with it.
For a refresher go visit Blenheim or Stowe or any one of those homes featured in costume dramas on TV.
CRWW
Very interesting Guildhall. I did not know this.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Footnotes: Hiring footmen by the foot isn’t where the term originated. Website sources suggest it was to run by a carriage or other horse conveyance in the 1300’s but this is actually not entirely correct either.
Footmen were employees of the Norman hunt especially the deer hunt. Their job was not entirely dis-similar to a modern beater at a driven grouse or pheasant shoot. And they weren’t employees of the lord of the manor or ranking earl they were employers of the huntsman which with birds is now a game keeper and with foxes or deer a huntsman.
I don’t know exactly when they came indoors and started opening doors and carrying messages but I suspect hou the same time the popes decided hiring Swiss soldiers to decorate their palaces was a good idea serving the ostensible purpose of guard and the actual purpose of fireman — remember each of these rooms had candles lighting them, fireplaces warming them and the homes were built of wood and plaster inside and stone or brick outside. Trimming wicks and logging fires was vital and constant.
Wick trimmers and snuffers, also often made of silver were another tool of the resident footman.
When Queen Victoria married the German Prince Consort he discovered these jobs had devolved into sinecures and actually spent most of his time when he was not designing glass houses or fathering nine children getting rid of these people.
He may have done a fairly good job, but it didn’t make him popular. When the late Queen Elizabeth married Philip she found him tasked with the same effort some hundred years later!
In modern times footmen are thin on the ground. The last guild dinner I attended in your country we each had a footman standing behind us. Mine was from Punjab and I embarrassed the heck out of him by insisting on talking to him rather than my fellow guests each side.
My Grandfather ran a hunting lodge of Victorian proportions in your country and employed footmen and beaters all serving a dual purpose. As a small boy visiting I found them very useful!
CRWW
