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| Sheffield Plate Egg Stand Sheffield, 1785 The Victoria & Albert Museum |
Eggcup sets or egg cruets first came about in the Eighteenth Century during a
period when the upper classes began a long-standing preoccupation with elegant
and refined dining. The earliest recorded eggcup frame that’s been found thus
far dates to about 1740.
This egg stand was made around 1785 in Britain of Sheffield Plate (copper plated with silver) and conveniently boasts a salt cellar, in the center of the stand, in the form of an oval basket with a swing handle. Originally this cellar would have had a (probably cobalt blue) glass liner to protect the silver from the corrosive effects of the salt.
This egg stand was made around 1785 in Britain of Sheffield Plate (copper plated with silver) and conveniently boasts a salt cellar, in the center of the stand, in the form of an oval basket with a swing handle. Originally this cellar would have had a (probably cobalt blue) glass liner to protect the silver from the corrosive effects of the salt.
The
stand and the pierced and chased egg cups are made in the Neo-classical style.
This very clever contraption also features hooks for six egg spoons (which are
now, sadly, missing).
Boiled eggs would have been
nestled in each cup and carried into the dining room by a footman on the
stand. Then, each person at table would
have been given his or her own egg cup and spoon and could have salted his or
her egg from the central cellar. 
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