Mastery of Design: An Enamel Pendant Case, 1325

This and all related images from:
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This pendant case dates to 1325 and is made from silver, silver gilt and translucent enamels. The top of the pendant features a balustrade of openwork quatrefoils, the vertical edges of which are pinnacled buttresses. Each side of this unusual case is inset with an enameled plaque.


The top panel slides to open, and the inscription “AVE MARIA GRACIA PL[ENA]” is engraved in Lombardic lettering. The enamel plaques feature heraldic and romantic scenes. 


The place of origin of this particular piece is debated, but it is believed to have come from either France or Great Britain.  Nevertheless, it was made to hold spices and scents in order to combat the rather pungent air that surrounded most cities and towns.  This personal treasure was intended to be worn around the neck, or suspended from a belt or girdle.  

Antique Image of the Day: A Trade Card for Mowbray & Son, 1830

The Victoria & Albert Museum

As you’ve seen, I’ve gotten rather fond of Victorian Trade Cards.  This one is actually from the beginning of the reign of King William IV--1830.  Here, we see a trade card for Mowbray & Son, a “Wholesale & retail genuine tea dealers and grocers” which was based on Newport High Street. The card emphatically shows the non-European origins of its goods by featuring a depiction of a man in Chinese-style dress, seated on a crate amongst cargo and loaves of sugar.


Tea from China became available in England in the late Seventeenth Century, but the cost and rarity made it a fashionable drink available only to the wealthy.   Increased availability over the Eighteenth century saw that tea could be enjoyed by the population at large.


This particular trade card was printed to publicize the services of Mowbray & Son, as a source of this coveted tea.  Such cards were not only useful advertising tools, but also served as a popular form of entertainment.  They were collected and enjoyed for their ingenuity and artwork, serving also as reminders of particular tradesmen.  

History's Runway: A Pair of Leather Gloves with Silver Embroidery, 1660

The Victoria & Albert Museum

In the Seventeenth Century, no one dared leave the house without gloves, both for reasons of fashion and hygiene.  A person’s gloves, like the rest of his or her ensemble, would have been a great indicator of their class and social status.  Here’s a pair of gloves which would have belonged to someone well-born and very wealthy.

Let’s remember that this was a period of history when personal hygiene revolved around the masking of body odors rather than something more practical like washing them away.  So, very often gloves were perfumed, allowing a convenient, literally handy way of masking unpleasant natural aromas.   During this period, gloves were scented with ingredients such as musk, ambergris, floral extracts and aromatic spices.

A glove like this one would certainly have been scented with spices.   A work of lushly deocarted leather, these gloves are adorned with silver and silver-gilt embroidery on the gauntlet, with an underlay of coral-coloured silk ribbon.


The silver and gold have been applied in a variety of forms: strip (broad, flat length of metal), purl (a tube of densely coiled metal), thread (a thin strip of metal wrapped around a linen or silk thread) and spangles (known today as sequins).  This is the perfect example of a Seventeenth Century glove when the gauntlets became smaller and the length of the fingers shortened to more natural proportions. 

Treat of the Week: Applesauce Spice Cake with Cardamom and Cinnamon

This weekend, after the holiday craze, we revisited a family favorite—my mother’s Applesauce Cake.  To simply refer to this masterpiece as an “applesauce cake” is to not do it justice. It’s so much more than that. A dense, incredibly moist Bundt cake, this delightful confection is spiced to perfection with cinnamon and cardamom. Cardamom offers a rich, sharp taste which brilliantly compliments the creaminess afforded the cake from the applesauce. If you’re a fan of spice cake, this is definitely for you.

With a wonderful crumb, the cake is tender and melts in your mouth. It’s as beautiful as it is delicious—perfectly sculpted from a delicate Kugelhopf Nordic Ware pan. My mother heartily recommends the Nordic Ware pans for their beautiful patterns and ease of use. Dusted with confectioner’s sugar and served with rosettes of whipped cream, this is the ideal cake for a chilly afternoon tea.

Punch’s Cousin, Chapter 431

Ty Odo staggered away from the docks—no, not out of defeat, but out of sheer fatigue.  His head ached and sweat clung to his ebony brow, making him both alarmingly hot and sharply cold at once.  For a moment, just a moment, he thought perhaps that he had succumbed to the Yellow Jack like Mrs. Cage had.  His fatigue turned to alarm and he ran his grimy fingers across his thick gums.  No, they weren’t bloody.

Odo forced himself to laugh.  Where would he go?  He held in his mind—like a lozenge of comfort—the image of Marjani eyes and the awareness therein that he could still cause damage to all of them.  That lozenge grew as he walked and, soon, his weariness was transformed into something far greater than alarm—determination.

But, how?  Where would he go?  He couldn’t go back to Mr. Cage.  Surely the man would have him killed.  Or would he?  Mr.  Cage didn’t know what Odo had been about during the last few hours.  

Still, it was risky.  His master might blame Odo for failing to secure the child. 

Marie?  Could he go to Marie?  He had failed her, too.  She helped him get the child from Mama Routhe.  She told him that if he followed her directions, they would both get what they wanted.  He could be a hero to his master and she could…she could.  What would she get?  She very much wanted the Duke to go to her.  That was what she had asked.  She was so certain that he would come.  Odo hadn’t thought they’d send a valet in his place.  Marie probably hadn’t thought of it either.

Odo imagined Gerry running toward Marie Laveau’s house.  There was no way he could catch the man.  He was younger, healthier than Odo.  Odo licked his thick lips and then frowned.  Marie wasn’t going to be too thrilled when that wild-bearded Gerard knocked on her door asking for Mrs. Routhe.

Then, suddenly, Odo had an idea.  There was one person who could bring it all together for him.  She was just as desperate as he, and surely just as wicked.  Odo clapped his hands for his own amusement and walked in the direction where he thought he’d be most likely to find the Duke’s undoing. 

Did you miss Chapters 1-430?  If so, you can read them here.  

Unusual Artifacts: A Nutmeg Grater, 1690

Here's something quite rare and unusual--as beautiful and useful as the day it was made in 1690.  Here we see, from the V&A, a nutmeg grater of an oval cowrie shell  mounted in silver, with a hinged grater and plain scroll handle. 

The gleaming shell is held in place by a cruciform cage of silver straps.  These have raised borders and an escutcheon which is engraved with the initials RB.

When this piece was made in Britain, Nutmeg was an extremely expensive spice, usthe primarily, to season the fashionable drink of punch.  Here, the shell was used to catch the nutmeg shavings to ensure nothing of the costle delicacy was lost.

Object of the Day: A Spice Box, 1720

Such spice boxes from the early Eighteenth Century were usually made in Paris or London by Huguenot goldsmiths, however, this one, quite unusually, comes from Rome perhaps for a visiting English or French patron. Spice boxes like this one were often sold in pairs or sets, so it's quite possible that  this Italian specimen from the Victoria & Albert Museum could have been made as a copy to complete an existing set.

This box takes a complicated  octagonal form mounted on four scroll feet. . Panels depicting classical busts, strapwork, and scrolling foliage on a matted ground adorn the covers which are hinged from the sides.  Another unusual feature of this example is that the interior of the box is divided into three gilded compartments--each with an additional cylindrical compartment at the center.