Part 4
Salt-cellars and spoons were of pewter, while extremely elegant people had spoons of alchymy, or occonny, alcaney, alcamy, occomy, ackamy, and accamy, as I have seen it spelt, a metal composed of pan brass and arsenicum. Forks were almost unknown, and fingers played an important part in serving and eating at the table. A lady traveller, in 1704, spoke with much scorn of Connecticut people, because they allowed their negro slaves to sit and eat at the same table with themselves, saying that “into the great dish goes the black hoof as freely as the white hand.”
Pewter porringers, or “pottingers,” of every size were much prized. One family, in 1660, had seven porringers, while another housewife was proud of owning nine, and one silver queen porringer. The smaller porringers were called posnets, a word now obsolete. Posnet was derived from a Welsh word, _posned_, a little round dish. In these posnets posset was served, and they were also used as pap-bowls for infants. Posnets and porringers, when not in use, were hung by their handles on the edge of the dresser shelf. The porringers with flat pierced handles are of English or American make, while the “fish-tail” handles are seldom found in New England, being distinctly Dutch.
Plates and platters were much valued. Governor Bradford, of Massachusetts, left to his heirs fourteen pewter dishes and thirteen platters, three large plates and three small ones, one pewter candlestick and one pewter bottle—a most luxurious and elaborate household outfit. Governor Benedict Arnold, of Jamestown, R. I., and Mr. Pyncheon, of Springfield, Mass., bequeathed their pewter plates and dishes in the same list, and with as much minuteness of description, as the silver tankards and bowls, and the humble pewter was as elaborately lettered and marked with armorial devices as was the silver. Miles Standish left to his heirs sixteen pewter dishes and twelve wooden trenchers.
Pewter was not thought to be too base a metal to use for communion services. In 1729, the First Church of Hanover, Mass., bought and used for years a full communion service and christening basin of pewter; and the bill of purchase and the old pieces are still preserved by the church as relics. The pewter communion service of the Marblehead Church is now in the rooms of the Essex Institute, and until this century advertisements of “Pewter Communion Flagons” appeared in New England newspapers.
These pewter dishes and plates were a source of great pride to every colonial housekeeper, and much time and labor was devoted to polishing them with “horsetails” (_equisetum_), or “scouring rush,” till they shone like fine silver; and dingy pewter was fairly counted a disgrace. The most accomplished gentleman in Virginia, of his time, gave it as a positive rule, in 1728, that “pewter bright” was the sign of a good housewife.
In some old country homes, either lack of money, the power of habit, or the strong love of ancient articles and associations, caused the preservation of the old pewter utensils, and they now form the cherished ornaments of the kitchen and dining-room. In the lovely old town of Shrewsbury, which stands so high on Massachusetts hills that the railroad has never approached its lonely beauty, there stands on the edge of the “Common” a house, in which everything that is good and old has been preserved, and appears as when the house was built, in the year 1779.
The old fireplaces have cranes and iron “dogs,” are festooned with ears of yellow seed-corn, and are surmounted by the old fire-arms, while by the chimney sides are hung old-fashioned brooms of peeled birch. These brooms are made of birch splints, carefully split and peeled, and tied in place with hempen twine on the strong handle; and many a farmer’s boy, years ago, earned his first spending-money by making them, for six cents apiece, for the country stores. Old settles, chairs, and tables stand on the white-scoured floors; and in the “living-room” is a piece of furniture seldom seen in New England, though common enough in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey in olden times—a “slaw bank.” The word is a corruption of _sloap bancke_, or sleeping bench, and the slaw bank was the great-grandfather of our modern cabinet folding-bed. At one end of the room are doors apparently belonging to cupboards, which, upon being swung wide open, disclose the oblong frame of a bed with a network of ropes to serve as springs. This bed-frame is fastened at one end to the wall with heavy hinges, and was hooked up against the wall in the day-time, and at night was lowered to a horizontal position and supported on heavy wooden turned legs, which fitted into sockets in the frame; and it was thus ready for use. This bed is still kept made up as of old, with hand-spun linen sheets, hand-woven “flannel sheets,” a “rising-sun” patchwork quilt, and blue and white woollen bedspread.
But in the dining-room and kitchen of this old Shrewsbury homestead are the greatest treasures—corner cupboards and shallow dressers full of pewter dishes, which greet their owner with “shining morning faces” at breakfast, and reflect in a hundred silvery disks the goodly cheer on his table at midday and night. Round plates and platters are there of every size, up to the great round shield on which was placed of old the enormous Thanksgiving turkey. All are round, for oval platters seem to have been then unknown.
The deep bowls, in which vegetables were served, stand there in “nests” of various sizes. Teapots, too, and cream-pitchers and sugar-bowls, or sugar-boxes, but no pewter teacups. I believe the little handleless teacups were among the earliest pieces of porcelain imported from China, and were often used when the rest of the “tea equipage” was of pewter. Pewter salt-cellars, mustard-pots, flip-mugs, and syrup-cups are interspersed among the larger pieces on the dresser.
Some of these articles are marked with initials and dates, not engraved, but stamped, as with a die, J. S. and B. K., 1769. Doubtless these were wedding gifts, and I doubt not that a set of shining pewter plates and platters was as graceful and welcome a gift to Betsey Sumner in 1769, as is a set of Royal Worcester porcelain to her great-granddaughter Bessie, in 1892.
Some of the teapots are really beautiful in shape, and are decorated with a quaint engraved design of leaves and round flowers. These were undoubtedly of Dutch manufacture, and are identical in shape and ornamentation with teapots authentically known to have been imported from Holland. These teapots were probably used for company “tea drinkings” and such state occasions, and thus the engraving on the soft metal was not worn by daily use.
Pewter spoons, too, are there in every size, though Betsey Sumner surely had silver teaspoons, for were they not inherited from her by her son, the old parson? As these pewter spoons were liable to be quickly bent, worn, or broken, every thrifty household had its various sized spoon moulds of heavy metal, into which the melted pewter was poured and came out as good as new, or, according to the apparent law of pewter, better than new. Button moulds, too, were common enough, containing deep holes to form half a dozen buttons at once. And perhaps Betsey Sumner turned her old spoons into buttons to adorn John’s coat, and polished them till they shone like the silver and cut-steel buttons of the French Court.
Many of the pewter articles in this homestead have had recently engraved upon the underside various commemorative dates, and the names of past owners, and the outlines of any eventful story connected with the dish, if story there fortunately be remembered to tell. And every owner of pewter plate or porringer, who knows by tradition the story of his old relic, should have the statement engraved now upon the back of the piece, for even in one generation these facts are forgotten, and the article is rendered valueless as an historic record.
In the kitchen of the great colonial house at Morristown, N. J., now owned and occupied by the Washington Association of New Jersey, may be seen a fine collection of old pewter table and cooking utensils; while at Indian Hill, at Newburyport, still is shining in cupboard and dresser the rare pewter collected by Ben Perley Poore.
To a day well within the remembrance of many now living, round pewter meat platters were used in farm-houses, long after the other pewter dishes had vanished; for it does not dull a carving-knife to cut upon pewter as it does upon porcelain or crockery, and old farmers cling stubbornly to usages and articles that they are acquainted with; and no “boiled dinner” ever could taste quite the same to them unless all heaped together on a great shining pewter platter.
Another pewter piece often found, and often still used, is the hot-water jug with its wicker-covered handle. This was brought every night, in colonial and Revolutionary times, well filled with boiling water, to the master of the house, for him to mix the hot apple-toddy or sangaree for the members of his household, who drank their share out of pewter cups or heavy greenish glasses. I know of two of these pewter jugs which have been in daily use for certainly forty years (though in the more temperate vocation of hot-water jugs to carry shaving-water to the bedrooms), and still retain, sound and firm, the old wicker coverings on the handles, which may have been woven upon them a hundred years ago. Truly, our grandfathers made things for use, not for sale.
Strange hiding-places have these old forsaken and forgotten pewter dishes. They lurk in tall and narrow cupboards by the side of old chimneys, or in short and deep cupboards over the mantel. They lie in disused fireplaces, hidden from view by gaudy modern fireboards. They are at the bottom of deep boxes under wide window-seats, and are shoved under the dusty eaves of dark attic-lofts. On the highest pantry shelves, under cellar stairs, in old painted sea-chests, in the woodhouse, are they found. From the floor of henhouses have they been rescued, where they have been long ignominiously trodden under foot by high-stepping and imperious fowl.
Let us take them from these obscure corners, and preserve them with care, for though they have no intrinsic value like silver, no brilliancy like glass, no beauty of color or design like china, they are still worth our interest and attention, for they were the first table-ware used by our ancestors. We are a young nation of few years and few relics, let us then reverently preserve the old pewter plates and platters, remembering that these simple dishes of inexpensive metal illustrate the frugal home-life of the men and women who were the founders of the Republic.
III. EARLY USE AND IMPORTATION OF CHINA IN AMERICA
The knowledge and use of porcelain in England did not long antedate the departure of the Pilgrims for the New World. As early as 1506, one exceptional importation of Chinese porcelain bowls is spoken of; but even in 1567—half a century later—one of Queen Elizabeth’s valued gifts was a “poringer of white porselyn and a cup of green porselyn,” and the notice paid such intrinsically valueless and small articles by their mention proves their rarity. Great ignorance of the processes of porcelain manufacture existed; even that learned, that marvellously well-informed man, Lord Bacon, wrote of “mines of porcelain,” and had the queer idea that china was developed in the earth, out of the common clay, by some strange and mysterious process of purification. Another universal belief was, that porcelain was a sovereign detector of poison, that it instantly showed the presence of poison in any draught that came in contact with it. Shakespeare speaks once of china, in his “Measure for Measure,” “a dish of some three-pence, your honors have seen such dishes, they are not china dishes, but very good dishes.” Ben Jonson refers more frequently to porcelain.
“_Broker._ ’Tis but earth Fit to make bricks and tiles of.
_Shunfield._ ’Tis but for pots or pipkins at the best If it would keep us in good tobacco pipes—
_Titus._ Or in porc’lane dishes.”
Again he says:
“The earth of my bottles which I dig Turn up and steep, and work, and neal, myself, To a degree of porc’lane.”
By the time of Pope and Dryden, china had become more widely known in England, and these writers and their contemporaries frequently refer to it. It is not probable that much china came to England until 1650, when the English East India Trading Company was established, though the Dutch had even then a large trade with China. Doubtless tea and china became plentiful in Europe together.
Addison wrote in 1713, “China vessels are playthings for women of all ages.... I myself remember when there were few china vessels to be seen that held more than a dish of tea; but their size is so greatly enlarged that there are many capable of holding half a hogshead.”
It is asserted that pieces of Delft ware were brought to America by the first English and Dutch settlers. It had been manufactured since the fifteenth century; but when our Pilgrim Fathers made their night-trip through Delft, no plebeian persons had Delft ware on their tables; hence the Pilgrims could have brought few pieces to New England on the Mayflower. Nor is it probable that those frugal souls owned any India china. The earliest Dutch settlers of New Netherlands were not likely either to have brought to the new land any pieces of the aristocratic Delft ware, though I have seen many Delft plates and teapots that bore the reputation of such ownership.
“Blew & white ware” is however not an infrequent item on early inventories of the last half of the century. John Betts, of Cambridge, Mass., had before his death, in 1662, “Som duth earthen platters & Som other Earthen ware,” valued at 6s. 8d. A citizen of Salem had in 1664 “17 pieces of blew & white earthen ware” worth 8s. 6d. John Cross, of Ipswich, left behind him in 1650 his “Holland jugs.” All these were doubtless Delft or the early imitations of Delft.
The oldest and most authentic piece of stone-ware in the country is the fine jug preserved in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, at Worcester. It was the property of Governor Winthrop, who died in 1649, and was given to the Society by a descendant, Adam Winthrop. It stands eight inches in height and is apparently of German Gres-ware, and is richly mounted in silver. The lid is engraved with a quaint design of Adam and Eve with the tempting serpent in the apple-tree. Estienne Perlin, writing in Paris in 1558, says, “The English drink beer not out of glass but from earthen pots, the cover and handles being made of silver for the rich. The middle classes mount them with tin.” Another writer, in 1579, spoke of the English custom of drinking from “pots of earth of sundry colors and moulds, whereof many are garnished with silver or at leastwise with pewter.” Such is this “beer mug” or tankard of Governor Winthrop’s, which is certainly three hundred years old. Other Massachusetts colonists had similar beer-mugs. Jacob Leager, of Boston, left in 1662 a “stone judg tipt with silver;” Henry Dunster had a “tipt jugg” in 1655; and Thomas Rix had in 1678 “3 fflanders jugs.”
Lisbon ware, which was earthen ware, was left by will in Massachusetts in 1650; and Spanish platters and painted platters are mentioned in an inventory in 1656. Peter Bulkeley, of Concord, Mass., had in 1659 “ten paynted earthen dishes” valued at ten shillings. In the lists and inventories of the town of Stamford, from 1650 to 1676, only two shillings worth of earthen ware is entered, and Stamford planters were far from poor. In the _Boston News Letter_ of February 9, 1712, six hogsheads of earthen ware, including teapots, were advertised for sale. These early teapots are said to have been of black earthen ware.
One of the earliest mentions of china in America is in the inventory made in 1641, of the property of Thomas Knocker, of Boston, “1 Chaynie Dish.” In 1648, in the estate of President Davenport, of Harvard College, was, “Cheyney, £4.” This was doubtless India china. Governor Theophilus Eaton had a “cheny basen.” In the list made in 1647, of the possessions of Martha Coteymore, a rich widow (who afterward married Governor Winthrop), is seen this item, “One parcel cheyney plates and saucers, £1.” Katherine Coteymore had “3 boxes East India dishes,” valued at £3. As early as October, 1699, John Higginson wrote to his brother with regard to importations from India, that “china and lacker-ware will sell if in small quantity,” and without doubt some small importations from India were made.
After the first decade of the century many rich Bostonians, such as Elizur Holyoke, had china. Isaac Caillowell’s estate in 1718 contained “Five China Dishes, One Doz. China Plates, Two China Muggs, a China Teapott, Two China Slopp Basons, Six China Saucers, Four China Cupps, and One China Spoon Dish.”
The earliest mention of the sale of china table-ware which I have seen is not in 1732, as given by Mr. Felt in his “New England Customs.” There are several notices of sales of china of earlier dates. In the _New England Weekly Journal_ of April 15th of the year 1728, were advertised for sale, at the Sun Tavern in Boston, “Chainey Bowles Dishes Cups Saucers and Teapots;” and “china cups & saucers” on June 17th. This “chainey” was probably all India china. In 1729, William Welsteed, a Boston merchant, had a large number of plates and “pickle caucers” for sale. In 1731, Andrew Faneuil announced that he had for sale at his warehouse “All sorts of Dutch Stone and Delf ware just imported from Holland.” In 1730 John Buining and Mrs. Hannah Wilson both advertised in the _Boston News Letter_, that they had “several sorts of china for sale;” and another Boston shopkeeper announced at the same time that he was going to sell out everything he owned, including china ware, and that his fellow-townsmen had better flock to his shop, for “buyers have reason to Expect good Bargains for this will be the Packing Penny,” which I suppose was the colonial slang expression for “bottom price.” At a later date the “Packing Penny” became “to buy the pennyworth.” It was not till 1737 that china ware was sold by “Publick Vandoo or Outcry,” or by “Inch of Candle,” in Boston, thus showing that it was being imported in larger quantities. In September of that year there was sold on Scarlett’s Wharf, with spices and silks and negro slaves,
“A Rich Sortment of China Ware. A Parcel of fine large Enamel’d Dishes. Ditto of divers Sizes of Bowles burnt & Enamel’d. Ditto of all Sorts of Plates. Sundry Complete Setts of Furniture for the Tea-Table. Blue & White Bowles; Blue & White Cups & Sawcers. Several sorts of small Baskets, &c.”
By this time Boston milliners and mantua makers, and fan mounters, and lace menders, had all begun to announce the sale of “chayney” in their show-rooms and shops. Fair Boston dames picked their way along the narrow streets, or were carried in stately sedan chairs, to “Mistress Alise Quick’s, over against the Old Brick Meeting House on Cornhill, at the sign of the Three Kings,” or to “Widow Mehetable Kneeland’s,” to see her “London baby drest in the latest fashioned Hooped Coat and lac’d Petty Coat with ppetuna hood;” or to “Mrs. Hannah Teatts, Mantua Maker, at the head of Summer Street, Boston,” who charged five shillings for showing her “Baby drest after the Newest Fashion of Mantues and Night Gowns and everything belonging to a Dress, latilly brought over on Captain White’s ship from London”—these bedizened doll-babies being the quaint colonial substitutes for fashion plates. These modish New-English dames first pulled over and tried on the “rayls and roquilos and cardinals,” and admired the ivory and cocoa paddle stick-fans; and peeped at their own patched faces and powdered hair in the lacquered looking-glasses; and then, perhaps, selected some flower seeds for their prim little gardens—their pleasaunces, “blew and yellow lewpin, double larkin-spur, sweet feabus, Love lies bleeding, Queen Margrets, Brompton flock, and sweet-scented pease;” and then they turned, unwearied and unsated, to the “Choise Sortment of Delph, Stone, Glassware, and China, viz., Bowles of Divers Sizes, Plates of all Sorts, and Dishes, Teapots, Cups & Saucers, Strayners, Mugs of Divers Sorts and Colors, Creampots pearl’d & plain, Bird Fountains, Tankards,” and they held up the tiny china teacups to the light and examined the painting, and perhaps sipped a little of the mantua maker’s Orange Pekoe or Bohea. And I doubt not many a china teapot or teacup stood cheek by jowl with quoyfs and ciffers on colonial milliners’ bills, and many a feathered “Kitty Fisher Bonnet,” or silver shape, or peaked Ranelagh cap was sent home to the daughters of the Puritans, packed with “catgut,” and “robins,” and “none-so-prettys,” in an India china punch-bowl.
Of the prices paid for these colonial ceramic luxuries we know but little. The enterprising outcrier, who cried out and vandooed at the “Blew Boar, at the South End of Boston,” announced in February, 1749, in the _Boston Independent Advertiser_, that he had “Fine blue & white and Quilted China Plates at Eleven Pounds the Dozen, or Six Pounds the Half Dozen.” So the shades of our ancestors can hardly cry out to us for extravagance. These quilted china plates were, I think, from subsequent references to them, plates impressed in the paste with a basket design, as we often see now on Chinese porcelain; or possibly with a larger, a truly quilted design, such as I have seen on rare old Oriental porcelain. In the inventory of the estate of John Jekyll, of Boston (made in 1732), we learn that “2 Burnt China Bowls were worth £2, 6 Chocolate Bowls £2, 1 Pr China Candlesticks Tipt with Silver £4, 12 Coffe cups with handles £1 7s.” In many inventories such a number of pieces are “crackt” or “mendid,” and so little hint of quality or decoration is given, that it is impossible to compare justly the values assigned with those of the present day. John Jekyll also had a “sett of burnt china.” The first mentioned sale of a “set” of china is in the _New England Weekly Journal_ of April 19, 1737—“A Fine Double Sett of Burnt China for sale, Enquire of the Printer.” Until then the precious porcelain had been sold only in single pieces, or in small numbers. The wills and inventories of the times speak of no sets of china, though the lists of the possessions of all persons of wealth, the advertisements of sales of estates, contain many items of china ware. Governor Burnet, who died in 1729, owned much china—three hundred pieces—as became a man who had £1,100 spent on his funeral; and his friend and neighbor, Peter Faneuil, had a bountiful supply of china and glass, as he had of other luxuries.