Description:
English creamware rectangular toast rack with four compartments separated by coiled ropetwist dividers and shaped thumbpiece ends, which is stamped “WEDGWOOD” over “P” on the base. A similar toast rack is also found in the Leeds and Don Pottery Design Books. Bread was a staple of the early American diet. For some, the pleasing, aromatic smell of toast is greatly appealing, but toasting bread is also a quick way to make stale, leftover bread more palatable. In her 1801 diary Betsy Phelps of Litchfield, Connecticut, wrote that “after nine we had supper, which consisted of cider-soup – or toast and cider – a dish which my husband is particularly fond of.” In the Wedgwood queensware factory shape book, this shape is shown as no. 1418 and is called a dry toast rack.

Subjects:
Pottery; glaze (coating by location)

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2006.33.77

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