Description:
English creamware food warmer or veilleuse or night lamp or beverage warmer with a kettle-shaped, covered food-bowl and pedestal stand, each of the separate pieces is incised "5" on the underside of the base. This glazed earthenware food warmer was used to keep food warm for patients or invalids or to prepare pap. Flour or bread was mixed with milk diluted with water to make pap, which could be used to wean infants off breast milk. The hollow space at the bottom was used to house an oil or spirit lamp which burned alcohol to provide a source of heat. The perforated cover was placed over the lamp and then the food was placed at the top in a lidded jar called a pannikin. Under the pannikin there is a space, known as a liner, for hot water. The steam given off from the liner warms the food. The name '"veilleuse" is probably derived from the French "veiller" (to keep vigil at night) and originally referred to any night lamp, but soon came to be applied to keeping food or beverages warm during the night for one person, and used in a sick-room, nursery, or on a bedside table. Food warmers were produced in silver and all ceramic forms (including delftware, creamware, pearlware, and porcelain) from the mid 1700's through the mid 1800's in England by a number of manufacturers, Europe, and later America. Veilleuse forms are particularly difficult to date because the form did not change enormously over time. In his '1790' Catalogue, Wedgwood illustrated a "Night lamp to provide illumination and conserve hot liquids"; and several shapes are illustrated in Plate 211 the circa 1802 Shape Drawing Book, but the food warmer was probaby in production at Wedgwood's some 20 years earlier. Wedgwood's 1817 Catalogue continued to show food warmers with kettle or porringer tops. Late in the 19th century, japanned tin food warmers were produced, usually with a covered food pan, water pan, and small double-wick lamp; one was named the "Berlin Nursery Lamp." Normally varying in height from 9 to 12 inches, the food warmer form was usually a hollow pedestal, into the top of which fit a flanged container such as a covered bowl or small teapot; the container's contents were heated by a small cup called a godet (or oil-boat, heater or spirit burner) that held a flaming wick in oil, which was passed through the small opening at the pedestal's base. This veilleuse has a slightly domed cover with a rope-twist loop final terminating in elaborate flower and leaf terminals; the very deep food-bowl, which brings the bottom close to the burner, has a molded loop handle and small fluted, pouring spout that can be covered by a molded projection on the cover. The pedestal stand, which is slightly swollen at the shoulder and base, has two applied, high-relief female masks with a twisted coil of hair on each side of the face, flanked by two star-shaped decorative piercings or openwork designs (for air circulation and some illumination) in the front and back; oval opening in the front; circular flange in the center of the base used to hold the godet (now missing); and two attached, ribbed coil handles with molded acanthus leaves along the top and terminating in elaborate flower and foliate terminals.
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