From “Puncheries” to Punch Ladles

A reproduction Monteith punch bowl. ~ “Monteith,” according to Judith Martin, “was a Scot who made great punch and wore a scallop-bottomed coat. His name adorns a punch bowl with a scalloped edge on which you can hang the punch glasses to chill on ice before you make the punch.”

Punch-Bowls: Punch bowls of silver are to be noted in most important plate inventories from 1670 until 1820. They were costly to make, the wide-mouthed bowl, measuring 11 to 21 inches in diameter, being raised from a flat disc of silver plate. Three twelve-inch examples struck with the London hallmark for 1666 are in the plate collection of the Skinners' Company.

Early punch bowls followed the pattern of oriental porcelain bowls, being very shallow and very open. Heavy plate was used and the body was more or less a section of a sphere with a plain smooth surface inside and out, not even the rim having any moulding to strengthen it, and was supported on a low, plainly moulded collar foot-ring. In the larger sizes, holding as much as four gallons, the design included two ring handles on the body. The only decoration until about 1715 was an engraved coat of arms or a crest enclosed in a wide border composed of scrells, foliage, flowers and other fashionable motifs. By the end of the seventeenth century it was customary for the rim to be strengthened with a narrow, light rim-moulding, or with a gadrooned or rope pattern edge.

Queen Anne punch bowls introduced a slight elaboration in form: the bowl opening was less expansive than before, and below the rim might be embossed a wide border of vine leaves and fruit, or other ornament. The moulding of the foot-ring was slightly deeper than during the previous century.

Although a considerable number of Georgian punch bowls appear to have been plain-surfaced others were embossed with fluting, which might be wide or narrow, flat-faced or rounded. Melon-shaped flutes are also found, narrow at the base, rising with a right-hand twist and broadening at the rim. Alternate flutes might be heavily embossed with leaf and floral designs. From about 1730 a short spool-shaped stem was placed between foot-ring and bowl, thus lifting the bowl higher from the table. This stem became deeper as the century advanced and the lower ring might be gadrooned. 

The bowl rim from about 1730 was slightly incurved, still strengthened by decorative moulding and sometimes with a wide encircling border of chasing or engraving immediately below. This design, with embossed and chased ornament from the rococo to the classic style and back again to the nineteenth century, is characteristic of Georgian punch bowls until 1830. From about 1790 hot punch became fashionable and the punch bowl might be accompanied by a plain circular tray upon which it stood when in use.

Punch-Ladles: Punch drinking so captured the imagination and palate of Georgian society that puncheries were established in their homes, forerunners of the modern cocktail bar. The Georgian punchery was magnificent with its display of colorful punch-bowls, glittering flint-glass goblets, silver spice-dredgers and sugar-bowls, bottles hung with enameled labels naming the numerous liquors from which modish punches were built, and long-handled punch-ladles.

Today, punch-ladles in their changing styles, demonstrating the eye for design and pride in good craftsmanship of the English silversmith, offer interesting possibilities to the small collector. – From Bernard and Therle Hughes”, “Three Centuries of English Domestic Service,” 1952

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

17th C. Entertaining Equipage

Monteith's were made in considerable numbers for almost a century and a half. In most instances, the bowl is fitted with a loose rim, molded in the characteristic outlines.

Thought by many people to be punch bowls, these are in fact coolers for drinking glasses. The Oxford diarist, Anthony à Wood, noted them in 1683: “This year in the summer time came up a vessel or bason, notched at the brims, to let drinking vessels hang in there by the foot, so that the body or drinking place might hang in the water to cool them. Such a bason was called a Monteigh from a fantastical Scot called Monsieur Monteigh, who at that time, or a little before, wore the bottoms of his cloake or coate so notched.”

Anthony à Wood - photo Public Domain

In 1773, Doctor Johnson defined a Monteith as “a vessel in which the glasses are washed.” Monteith's were made in considerable numbers for almost a century and a half. In most instances, the bowl was fitted with a loose rim molded in the characteristic outlines. — From the book,  “1500-1820:  Three Centuries of English Domestic Silver”, by Bernard and Therle Hughes

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia©️ Etiquette Encyclopedia  

Silverware and Forked Answers

An unusual and highly valuable, antique silver, fish-shaped, Victorian spoon warmer. These were used in very large, drafty estates, to keep the spoons from “downstairs” warm for the meals served “upstairs.” –  “It was here that for the first and last time in his life Mr. Campion made the acquaintance of those silver-plated cornucopias which, in Victorian times, were supplied to the diner filled with hot water, so that he might warm his spoon before partaking of that greasy delicacy called thick soup.” –Marjorie Allingham

Silverware Provides Golden Opportunity for Forked Answers

The secret vice of etiquette is to play guessing games with old pieces of silver. The stranger looking an object say, a combination of writhing bodies with spouts, or tongs and clawed footsies the more fun it is to ask, “And what do you suppose THAT is?” Then, again, perhaps this vice is not entirely secret. Miss Manners has noticed that people who fail to acknowledge the daily toils of etiquette as it strives to make the world bearable in small ways, believe its only function is in connection with peculiar silver. Under etiquette's kindly veneer, they seem to believe, it is really only a system by which people who have the time and money to waste in acquiring funny silverware, endeavor to make those who don't, feel inadequate. 

The object such detractors choose to bolster their slander is usually the humble fork. “I never know what fork to use,” they will brag, as evidence that they are above snobbish games. The fact that the fork is a household mainstay at all levels of society, the use of which can be, and routinely is, mastered by a child of 3, makes it a strange example. Therefore, Miss Manners will now offer some better ones. In the spirit of the parent who says, “Stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about,” she suggests that the next time they complain about esoteric items of silver, they choose an example among the following items. Miss Manners has helpfully divided these into two categories and supplied some dubious etymology. 

A. What in the Heck Is That? 

1. Bougie box. This is where you keep your bougie, of course. A bougie is a coil of bleached wax, named after the Algerian town that supplied it, and it sticks out in a taper through the lid of your small, circular bougie box to provide a dim light for whatever dim activities you may wish to engage in. If you don't mind your bougie being uncovered, you can hang it on a wax jack, but it is well known that bougie boxes keep the mice from nibbling your tapers.
2. Monteith. Monteith was a Scot who made great punch and wore a scallop-bottomed coat. His name adorns a punch bowl with a scalloped edge on which you can hang the punch glasses to chill on ice before you make the punch.
3. Argyle. Either the fourth or the fifth Duke of Argyle, depending on whom you believe (Miss Manners doesn't vouch for any of this information), invented his own gravy boat, which has a hot-water compartment for keeping the gravy hot. 
4. Posset or caudle cup. This is a two-handled cup in which you can drink posset (curdled milk with wine or ale, oat cakes and spices) or caudle (wine with spices and sugar and crumbled bread) or, if those lists of ingredients get to you, grab both handles and be sick.  

B. Any Fool Can Understand What It Is, But What Do You Need It For?  

1. Wine wagon. This is a great toy, consisting of a little wheeled wagon that holds two wine bottles, so that you can send it careening down the length of the table at exactly the point when someone with sense ought to remove it and you from the table.
2. Sardine box. Why would you want to keep your sardines in a silver box with pictures of sardines engraved on it, when you can pack them into a can like people on a subway? Because sardines were once very expensive. 
3. Tea caddy. Ditto for tea, which is why lots of tea caddies have locks on them. 
4. Cheese toaster. If you think it's messy to make your toasted cheese sandwiches in the stove, try aiming a silver cheese toaster with a hot water compartment toward the open fire. 
5. Soy frame. This is one form of the cruet, a stand holding bottles of sauces, which is socially on a level with the ketchup-and-mustard stand at your local fast food restaurant.
6. Spoon warmer. You don't mean you've been using cold spoons to serve food with, do you? The spoon warmer contains hot water in which to keep serving-spoons on a buffet table.
7. Salver. This is just a small-footed tray for serving drinks, but Miss Manners likes the idea that it was named for the hope that it would save one's clothes from the dribble. 
8. Epergne. Miss Manners throws this in because its name also refers (in French) to saving. The epergne is a many-armed centerpiece to be filled with fruits, nuts and candy, and its name refers to a direction to the staff to save whatever is left after the guests have finished gobbling. – Miss Manners, 1989

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia