Description:
Fused or Sheffield silver-plated, drum-shaped argyle or gravy warmer (unmarked) with a hinged, flat cover with an ivory mushroom finial held in place with a central rod and a decorative band of incised scrolling leaves and flowers around the rim edge; straight sides with decorative bands of incised scrolling leaves and flowers around the top edge and base, a scrolled pearwood handle, and S-curved narrow spout. The base is scratched, "SH X 11/20 / 9e / x / 2L / -" The idea for this form was suggested by John, fifth Duke of Argyle, who liked his gravy warm; its application in silver was common by 1755. Often similar in appearance to a small teapot or coffeepot, the earliest versions had an outer compartment or jacket that held hot water poured into a hole between the handle and the pot. The gravy was situated in the interior compartment. The spout’s attachment, placed low at the base of the pot, prevented the separated fat of the gravy from pouring out. Argyles may also resemble sauce tureens or jugs, but their inner construction can be quite different, although all are intended to keep their contents hot. Some, such as this example, have a double jacket for hot water, which was poured in through the juncture of the body and handle with the gravy in the interior chamber. Others have a central compartment for hot water; or a vertical socket in the middle of the body in which a heated iron or burning embers could be placed. This argyle has a spout that goes through the water jacket so that the gravy did not cool as it was poured out. The base of the spout is positioned just above the base so that the gravy juice could be poured out without the fat that would have risen to the top. During the early years of the fused plate industry from 1750-1770, makers used devices of their own as marks, some of which looked deceptively like silver marks, especially when marked three or four times in a row and then partially obliterated. The Act of 1773 established an assay office for silver in Sheffield, and provided that no article in which silver was used, if it were not solid silver, could bear a device resembling a mark on silver. In 1784, a further act decreed that the platers could register a device, but it was not to suggest a silver mark; however platers were not compelled to use marks and did not always comply.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+79.006 |
