The Keepers of the Cheese

 

QUESTION: I recently purchased a beautiful Wedgwood Jasperware cheese dome at an annual antiques show. Although I have never thought of collecting cheese keepers, I fell in love with this one. Why did the English make this type of cheese keeper? Was it for all types of cheese? Didn’t cheese need to be refrigerated?

ANSWER: Today, most people eat supermarket cheese, all of which needs to be refrigerated. Even creamy gourmet cheeses need to be kept cold due to their cream content. But some English cheeses, such as cheddar and Stilton, are hard cheeses 

English cheesemaking dates back to around 3800 BCE. But it was the Romans occupying the region in the first decades of the first millennium that brought it into general production by using rennet from ruminant animals to create cheese during the summer months.

Early cheesemaking was a simple procedure,  requiring no more than a couple of bowls, a ladle, a strainer and some hard-won skill to make soft fresh goat or cow's milk cheese. Snowy-white Perroche, made today in Herefordshire, is just such a cheese with a delicate citrus flavor.

Every Roman legionary got an ounce of cheese in his daily ration. With 5,000 men in a legion, that amounted to 5,000 ounces or about 140 kilos a day. Only hard cheese could  be cut into one-ounce pieces. The Romans also introduced large-scale sheep farming to Britain.

Fast forward to the Middle Ages where the feudal system of lords and tenants encouraged centralized cheese production by taking advantage of the labor available through agricultural workers. This cheese fed the lords and their tenants, instead of being traded.

Medieval monks ate lots of cheese. Many monasteries had their own dairies; records from Whitby Abbey in Yorkshire show purchases of rennet. The monks originally brought their expertise with them from France. Their repetitious lifestyle, daily routines, and general scientific interests proved extremely useful in cheesemaking. Most of the cheese made for the monks was probably hard, low-fat cheese, with the cream skimmed off to churn into butter for the abbot’s table. 

Due to the proliferation of sheep in England, farmers used ewe’s milk to make many of the early cheeses. By the 17th century, cows had become the preferred dairy animal, especially in areas with flatter landscapes and excellent grazing conditions which could support larger herds. This increase in herd size enabled farmers to produce more wheels of cheese, allowing them to send their cheeses to town and city markets and aboard. However, local farmers continued to produce cheeses for themselves, leading to the creation of classic cheeses such as Cheshire and Wensleydale. 

Soon Britain became known for its large, hard wheels of cheese, called truckles. A truckle of cheese is a cylindrical wheel of cheese, usually taller than it is wide, and often described as barrel-shaped. The word is derived from the Latin trochlea, meaning “wheel or pulley.” Made in styles with and without additional cream, these cheeses all shared the common practice of using molds lined with cheesecloth to drain curds during the beginning stages of production. 

And while English cheddar is popular today, Cheshire cheese was the predominant cheese produced across England. By the middle of the 17th century, more than 4,000 farms made the crumbly, dense cheese, although the average herd size was only five cows, barely enough to create a wheel of Cheshire a day. In the southwestern parts of the country, however, farms would often combine resources to create gigantic, 120-pound wheels that could handle significant aging, often more than 5 years. The first recorded shipload of Cheshire cheese arrived at the port of London in October 1650 and was an instant hit.

Over the next few hundred years, Cheshire became England’s most popular and widely sold cheese until the late 19th Century when Victorian Cheddar knocked it off its perch. By the beginning of the 20th century, cheddar had become Britain’s top cheese.

Of all the cheese in Britain, Stilton is probably the most revered. The history of the early production of Blue Stilton cheese is unclear, but the “King of English Cheeses’ wasn’t actually produced in the village of Stilton. Historians credit Cooper Thornbill, landlord of the Blue Bell Inn in Stilton, with the earliest marketing of Blue Stilton cheese between 1730 and 1759. Located on the Great North Road, the inn was a popular stopping point for coaches traveling north from London to Edinburgh. Thornhill partnered with Leicestershire cheese maker Frances Pawlett and negotiated arrangements which gave the Bell Inn exclusive rights to market Blue Stilton. Travelers spread the word of this fine cheese upon returning to London. The only downside of Blue Stilton cheese is it pungent aroma.

Victorian dinner parties often included the service of cheese accompanying a salad course just prior to dessert. It was important to keep the cheese covered not only to reduce drying, but also to prevent the pungent smell from permeating the room.

Stilton can only be made in three counties – Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire – and not, oddly enough, in the Cambridgeshire town of Stilton itself. 

The mass production of cheese made it readily available to the poorer classes. Therefore, simple cost-effective storage solutions for cheese gained popularity. Ceramic cheese dishes, or cheese bells, became one of the most common ways to prolong the life of cheese in the home. It remained popular in most households until the introduction of the home refrigerator in 1913

The Victorian passion for blue-veined Stilton cheese was equal to the array of dishes used to serve it. Also known as cheese stands, cheese bells and cheese domes, potteries produced these dishes in a variety of styles. In the early 19th century, Wedgwood was the first to produce a tall cylindrical cover with matching stand intended to accommodate an entire round of Stilton cheese. Most majolica cheese keepers were of this style. Less commonly, majolica cheese stands assume a smaller triangular shape designed to store a single wedge.

The domed covers of majolica cheese keepers were typically decorated in relief with basket weaving, foliage, flowers and occasionally birds. On top of the dome sat a finial composed of a twig, rope, flower blossom or a finely modeled animal figure. The stand or underplate complements the dome both in design and coloration and had a peripheral rim on its upper surface inside which the dome rests.

Many manufacturers made cheese domes. Probably the most well known was Josiah Wedgwood. His Jasperware was the perfect form for a cheese dome. Developed by late 1774, Jasperware comprised a dense white stoneware which accepted colors throughout the entire body.

By December 1774 Wedgwood was able to give a fine white composition any tint of fine blue.' And by January 1775 the stage was set for blue Jasper: After that He was soon able to create almost any shade of blue, plus a beautiful sea green, chocolate brown, and several other colors. Wedgwood decorated his cheese domes with low reliefs of classical figures in white.

And while Wedgwood continued with his classical themes, another potter, George Jones, created elegant designs for his domes, with pastoral decorations in vibrant colors.  

One of Jones’ domes features a waterlily and dragonfly pattern. The pottery made this pattern in both low and tall sizes, as well as with a couple of different handle treatments, the traditional waterlily blossom, and a rarer version with a kingfisher handle. As with all of the Jones domes, it was also made in several colors. Other domes feature different handles with shells, leaves, and snakes.

A Jones dome with a cow and acanthus leaf design features a cow handle on top. 

The pottery used this same cow handle on its Calla Lily dome, part of the larger rare Calla Lily series. One of the most frequently found domes is one with the apple blossom pattern, also part of a larger series.

An unusual cheese dome pattern made by the company was the thatched bee skep cheese keeper in two sizes. Beautiful and very rare, it’ is also one of the most valuable. 

Probably the most famous of Jones’ cheese domes features a fence and daisy design.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The  Vernacular Style" in the 2024 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

A Piece for Every Food

QUESTION: An uncle of mine collected Victorian silverware. All the pieces he had—some 400–were from the same pattern, Renaissance. One day, he invited me over for lunch. And to my surprise, he laid out two place settings of this beautiful silverware. Not only did we use the usual fork, knife, and spoon, but we also used numerous serving pieces. Why did the Victorians use so many different pieces of silverware? Did people try to outdo each other by seeing how many different pieces they could use at a single meal?

ANSWER: Today, some people break out their silverware service for eight or twelve for holiday meals and special occasions. It naturally goes with the “good china.” But in the second half of the 19th century, wealthy Victorians laid out as many as eight to ten pieces at each place setting! How could they afford to do this? Well, for one thing, they had lots of money, and secondly, they had servants to wash and polish all those pieces.

By the 1850s, table etiquette in the English-speaking world had begun to undergo dramatic changes, thanks in part to Queen Victoria. But the invention in 1830 of a silver plating process for applying, or electroplating, a coating of pure silver to a base metal, usually copper or a zinc alloy, sealed the deal.

Up until this time silver had been sterling, solid silver that was 925 parts pure silver per thousand—coin silver, solid silver made from melted down coins and containing varying amounts of pure silver, and Sheffield plate, a process that fused two sheets of sterling silver to either side of a core sheet of copper. Sheffield plate, named for the region of England, near Birmingham, where it was manufactured, was a process suited for household items, such as bowls, goblets, cups, and trays, but not suited for eating utensils.

Although Victoria's reign began in 1837, it wasn’t until the late 1800s that the opulence, extravagance, and rigidly adhered to social rituals and etiquette associated with the Victorian era reached their height. By 1850, the Industrial Revolution was in full swing, both in England and America. Manufacturers could produce silverware somewhat inexpensively thanks to silverplating, and Queen Victoria set a new standard for social mores that centered around the home and family.



For centuries, flatware, or what most people called silverware, had consisted solely of spoons and ladles of varying sizes and materials, simple forks, and cutlery, or knives. People used forks with two or three tines to hold food for cutting and used knives to spear their food and transfer it to their mouths for eating. Queen Victoria soon changed that.

She frowned upon the use of the knife for spearing food. In order to discourage this practice, she encouraged silverware manufacturers to blunt the sharp ends of knife blades. The fork, until this time used primarily for holding food in place while people cut and speared it—much like our present day carving forks—became the utensil of choice. The rule became, never use a knife if a spoon can be used, and never use a spoon if a fork can be used. By the late 1800s, manufacturers were producing forks for every conceivable use—dinner forks, luncheon forks, salad forks, dessert forks, pastry forks, fish forks, oyster forks, berry forks and ice-cream forks, to name a few.

They also produced a variety of spoons—teaspoons, five-o'clock spoons (slightly smaller than a regular teaspoon), coffee or demitasse spoons, chocolate spoons, round cream soup spoons, bullion spoons (smaller than cream soup spoons), dessert spoons, cereal spoons, and more.

However, people still needed knives for cutting, so silverware makers produced dinner knives, luncheon knives, breakfast knives, fruit knives and butter knives. To emphasize the lesser role to which the knife had been relegated, matching knives, especially those with hollow handles, became less common than today. Victorian-era place setting knives, with the exception of butter knives and spreaders, usually had solid and plain or pearl handles, as well as handles of wood, bone, and ivory.

But it was the Victorian serving pieces where the extravagance and opulence of design was the most apparent. In addition to the traditional serving spoon, serving fork, gravy ladle, butter knife and sugar spoon that are staples of today’s silver services, Victorian silver manufacturers produced such items as asparagus servers, berry spoons, cucumber servers, fish servers, oyster ladles, soup ladles, preserve spoons, salt spoons, toast servers, tomato servers, and waffle servers, among many others. These  pieces were large and ornately decorated. They often heavily embossed the bowls of serving spoons and the base of the handles of serving forks and knives.
   
Once word of the electroplating process spread to the United States, a bevy of small silver manufacturers sprang up, primarily in Connecticut. Companies such as Oneida, Reed and  Barton, William Rogers, 1847 Rogers Brothers, and Wallace, became prominent and produced some of the most collectible silver flatware of that era. Ironically, the first patterns produced in any amount were silver plate. Later, in response to customer requests, they produced some of the same patterns in sterling. Later on, they made different patterns in sterling to distinguish them from silver plate.

Makers gave their silverware patterns names rather than numbers to identify them, the idea being that names would be easier to remember than numbers. They also thought that the names, themselves, would evoke an image of gracious living. Pattern names such as Moselle, Renaissance, Berkshire, Vintage, New Century, Orange Blossom, Grenoble, and York Rose are reminiscent of that refined era.

There are probably as many different ways of collecting and reasons for collecting as there are patterns and pieces in Victorian flatware. The next time you watch a TV series like “Downton Abbey,” notice the table settings. The prop department went out of their way to make sure that everything was exactly right and even instructed the actors in the proper etiquette for the time.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about western antiques in the special 2019 Winter Edition, "The Old West," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques & More Collection on Facebook.