Description:
Oval creamware monteith with twelve rounded, in-turned scallops and U-shaped cut-outs (six per side) around the rim, and two molded, scrolled acanthus-leaf handles attached to two ends, which is impressed "WEDGWOOD" over "F" on the base. This monteith is the same form but slightly smaller than the unmarked montieth, HD 2006.33.24. In the late 17th century, the preference for serving wines cold made it desirable to place glasses in ice water before use. Monteiths, notched basins that allowed footed glasses to hang in chilled water, evolved as receptacles for this purpose. Their first appearance is securely datable from the description of the Oxford diarist, Anthony Wood, who wrote in 1683, “this yeare in the summer time came up a vessel or bason notched at the brims to let drinking glasses hang there by the foot so that the body or drinking place might hang in the water to coole them. Such a basin was called a ‘Monteigh,’ from a fantastical Scot called ‘Monsieur Monteigh,’ who at that time or a little before wore the bottome of his cloake or coate so notched uuuu.” Monsieur Montiegh was probably the Earl of Monteith or Menteith (1661-1694), the nineteenth and last holder of a title created circa 1160. Dr. Samuel Johnson’s "Dictionary" (London, 1775) described a monteith as “A vessel in which glasses are washed.” Monteiths were undoubtedly used for both cooling and rinsing wineglasses, and the.eye-catching monteiths provided a less expensive alternative to fountains, cisterns, or basins, which performed the same function. Early montieths were usually made in silver;.the first recorded English silver monteith dates from 1684, but by the 1730s their production in silver had nearly ceased. However, montieths contined to be made in pewter, glass, earthenware, pewter, tole, Sheffield plate, and porcelain. Wedgwood's first Queen's Ware catalogue of 1774 illustrated this montieth shape on Plate 5, Design 16, described as "Montieth [sic], for keeping Glasses cool in water, two sizes"; the 1790 catalogue illustrated on Plate 11, Design 56, was described as "Glass-rack ['verrier' in the French catalogue] for twleve glasses." This form imitates Sevres's seau a verres crenele ovale. Other late 18th-early 19th century creamware catalogues such as those by the Leeds, Castleford and Don Potteries listed this form as, "Glass Tray for Ten or Twelve Glasses, 9 to 14 Inches." At times, unusual forms such as monteiths, were confusing to the elite classes too. Anne Cole, Lady Enniskillen (1742-18032) of Florence Court, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, was unfamiliar with the form of a monteith. Josiah Wedgwood wrote "Lady I[nniskillen] ...does not know what montephs [sic] are - if they be either very useful or very pretty she desires they may be sent." The solution, noted in the order books, was to "Get a monteith drawn upon a sheet of paper to send to Lady I."
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2006.33.23 |
