Got a Light? The Match Safe

The match safe was a small little box, of sorts, with a snug hinged lid. It was a popular item for men nearly 100 years. It contained matches reachable at any moment to light up a smoke. Men no longer had to search for a light as they would have one tucked into a pocket. Sometimes they would attach it by a chain to a waistcoat. One pocket might hold a watch and, the other, a match safe.

An American Art Nouveau Sterling Silver Match Safe with a repoussé design of sinuous scrolls and flourishes with an engraved center. Antiques & Old World Charms.

The friction match was invented around 1820s. Matches were an important technical advancement of the time. At first they produced an unsteady flame accompanied by an unpleasant odor. They could also spontaneously catch fire. The sulfur tip needed only slight friction to ignite and could explode in a pocket if unprotected. (Talk about hot pants!) However, these issues didn’t deter the popularity of smoking, and in fact the invention of the match even increased the habit. Later, the sulfurous odor was diminished by adding white phosphorus -- a dangerous chemical to anyone who handled enough of it. The risk was very high for “phossy” jaw.

This sweet little heart by Minshull & Latimer was crafted in 1900 with the initials of ‘FVB’ has been sold. You can see on the edge of the heart where matches were struck on the serrated edge of the case. Leopard Antiques.

To keep one safe from spontaneous combustion, these ingenious little boxes were invented and only a few inches in length. Referred to as Vesta Cases in England and Match Safes in America, they were fireproof, light and portable. Artfully designed with a closely fitted hinged top and serrated striker on the side or bottom, the inside of the case would often be gilded to protect the silver from the sulfur head of the match, which would otherwise tarnish the silver.

By Liberty & Co. most likely by Archibald Knox c. 1902. (see International Match Safe Associations's museum section).

They were designed in almost every conceivable material and in a variety of forms. Match safes were fashioned out of other materials such as wood, ivory, mother-of-pearl, tortoise shell, leather, bone and Bakelite. The decoration reflected the fads and fashions of the day.

Blue point crab claw by Gorham, 1890. (see International Match Safe Associations's museum section).

A wee little Scientific American newspaper by Enos Richardson & Co., 1890. (see International Match Safe Associations's museum section).

Formed in the shape of a violin. London, 1889. Available at Wax Antiques.

In the form of a dog’s head and made of sterling silver with real fur. (see International Match Safe Associations's museum section).

By Tiffany. Photos show the front and back. Note the little bug on the lid. Part of the the collection of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.

The more expensive ones were made from gold. Some were set with diamonds, rubies or other precious gems. Others had enameled designs which became popular later during the Edwardian era. Some of the most valuable match safes today are the enameled sterling ones depicting one favorite activity of men: hunting.

Enameled over sterling silver by Howard James, England c. 1890. Available at B Silverman.

By Reed and Barton c. 1900. Also from the collection of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.

But of course, many depicted the most favorite topic for the male viewer.

This one is from Germany c. 1900. (see International Match Safe Associations's museum section).

More common safes, however, were silver-plated, nickel-plated, or made of brass. Some were even made of nickel alloy to resemble sterling.

Brass Lady's Leg, Continental c. 1895. (see International Match Safe Associations's museum section).

As women were slowly and grudgingly admitted into the tobacco fraternity during Edwardian times, some match safes were designed to appeal to feminine tastes.

The invention of the pocket lighter curbed the use of the match safe. During the First World War soldiers found the pocket lighter to last longer and were easy to refill. Match safes fell out of favor when the new lighters became more available becoming obsolete by World War II.

Still popular with collectors today, a decade ago one fetched at auction quite a price:

A Victorian vesta case sold in 1999 at Christies for $12,429. The front is enameled with a seaside Punch and Judy tent. It shows Mr. Punch, Judy, Toby the Dog and a drummer, by Sampson Mordan, London 1887.

Many match safes can be purchased for a few hundred bucks. For those wanting to purchase a genuine article that is not only functional but also possesses a lovely aesthetic, think about one of these. Surely the match safe constitutes an affordable luxury in this day and age that some people can still buy and afford. Many costs less than a fancy cell phone designed to last only a matter of years, and it certainly last longer.

I am not a smoker but somehow after looking at these little match safes I am charmed by their ingenious workmanship. Next time I light my scented candles, I’d rather pull a match from a lovely little match safe rather than from a book of cardboard matches with the phone number of a bail bondsman stamped across the front.

Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner? Silver from Hall’s

There was once a time, not too long ago, when the young with career ambitions hightailed it to big cities in pursuit of an urban, work hard and play hard existence. Domestic bliss was dated. Promotions, cocktails and reckless pursuits are how this generation preferred to live. Once they felt good about their careers, then they thought about settling down. But they didn't register for wedding china, etched crystal water goblets or frilly sterling flatware. They went out with friends and ordered fancy drinks; they didn't sit at home planning menus and elaborately decorating the dining table.

But are things beginning to change? Daughters and sons of the baby boom generation are yearning for a little more tradition in their lives. Those of us a bit older (and wiser) are beginning to wish we had listened to our Grandmothers more as they explained why we were to put our forks where. People are staying home and inviting friends over. Entertaining has become an art again. A bag of baby carrots with a container of sour cream sprinkled with onion mix, or a croc pot filled with Velveeta and Ro-tel isn’t the most creative way to entertain. No more tapping a keg and pouring beer into plastic cups, people are thinking about unique recipes to try and creative ways to set the table. Many will spend a Saturday afternoon watching the Food Network Channel for novel ideas.

As this recession has taken hold, we are beginning to gravitate toward the home and becoming more concerned with our own domestic issues. We're breaking away from a Gatsby-esque market and figuring out ways to reuse and recycle.

Why not look to the past for ideas and ways to reuse what has gone before us? Let's bring back the tradition of fine dining and appreciate the items that have once adorned a beautifully set table. Granted, the Victorians went a little overboard creating a specialized tool for every condiment, pickle or spice, but dining has become a dying art. Shouldn't we appreciate the objects once used?

Hall’s on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City has quite a collection of silver plated hollowware. Any one of these items would put a little sparkle to a table setting. The great Patricia Shakelford and I jaunted to Hall’s to meet with Melissa Fritz last week. We decided we would pick out five of our favorites -- we liked many of the same things.

The Victorian notion of appropriate goods to set the table is no longer practiced today. Each object displayed or used once had meaning to a specific activity. When we see some of these objects today, it is their strangeness that makes us pause. This does not mean we can't find new and different ways to use these intriguing objects.


I’M A LITTLE TEAPOT

If a respectable Victorian bachelor dined away from his parent’s table, he was most likely at the club. He didn’t have the equipment to cook at home for one. A bachelor couldn’t be bothered by pots and pans. However, the one piece that every proper gentleman must possess was the teapot.

by Joseph Benwell Clark, The Bachelor's Breakfast Table, 1885

This English example from Hall’s is by Walker and Hall circa 1880 and is based on an eighteenth century Georgian ovoid form. The body has chased tassels and swags and even the once eligible bachelor's initials engraved. It is fitted with a C-loop wooden handle and finial.

SOUP TUREEN OR CENTERPIECE?

Weather serving lobster bisque or chicken chili, any variety of soup would be well presented in this lovely boat-shaped tureen. These simple lines make for a smashing table centerpiece. Keep the lid on or fill it with ivy. I love the scalloped foot and the loop handles with flat tops. It lacks any of the heavy Victorian ornamentation for an item dating around 1875. Although it is missing the original spoon, any large spoon would suffice. Place it on your table, or arrange it with a lamp and a stack of small cloth-bound books on your dresser.

CARVING SET

Something many households are amiss is a good carving set. This three-piece American set by Continental circa 1900 has horn handles and sterling silver scrolling strap work overlay. I love this set. I find it very masculine. What a special utensil for the host to carve the holiday turkey.

NUTS OVER A NUT DISH

Another fun example for a table centerpiece, this item might have once been used as an large dish for nuts. It could be used to hold business cards today. The practice of dropping off cards during the Victorian times is an interesting one. There was an entire card leaving ritual with strict codes of behavior. Leaving cards in ornate sterling or silver plated recepticles was a crucial component to maintain an active social life. There were definitions of good taste -- these tid bits of paper were carefully examined. The font could not be too ostentations nor too plain.

COCKTAILS ANYONE?

This is a tray from the Aesthetic Movement and is perfect inside or out for your next shin-dig to set out a few glasses. It also makes a sharp presentation for food. Think of red and green grapes with a wheel of brie on this oversized tray. When not in use, put the tray on its side and use as a backing for a vase of flowers or plant.

Gustave Caillebotte, Luncheon, 1876
Private collection

Caillbotte has composed the figures tightly around a table allowing for us, as the viewer, to feel part of this scene. As if we were literally sitting at the table. Although many of the items in this painting are glass, it reminds us how each object was used. Mrs. Blanding’s choice of the compote would look marvelous with some fruit nestled in it on this table.

Next time we covet a larger flat screen TV or a new iPod, let us pause for a moment and think about the inherent beauty a silver object possesses and how we can incorporate these items into our daily lives. We spend so much money on electronics in an attempt to make our lives easier, but what about the enrichment of gazing upon a silver object. (At least these objects possess some value as they age -- unlike most electronics.) If someone special says to you: "What do you want for your birthday?" Remember that lovely silver piece. Or even treat yourself.

(Top image: by Alfred Edward Emslie, Dinner at Haddo House, 1884)

The Salver: A Tray for All Seasons (especially this one)

A silver salver makes a lovely receptacle for keys, cell phone, change and, perhaps even a place for all those pesky bills that seem to pile up. But especially this time of the year, it is nice to set on a table to hold all those holiday cards from friends and family -- even those annoying ones from senders gasconading about their "wonderful" accomplishments. Those can certainly be buried down at the bottom of the pile. Salvers can be used for arrangements of Christmas balls with sprigs of fir or bittersweet branches. Or even as a tray to display a miniature Christmas tree. When guests come over it is quite handy to set out a salver filled with sugared fruit, chocolates and cookies. What about in a powder room to fan out fancy monogrammed linen towels? Or on top of a dresser to hold those big chunky necklaces that never fit in a jewelry box. Truly, I am not good with these ideas. Suggestions are most welcome.

We know salvers today as a type of tray used for holding refreshments or hors d'oeuvres. I find their handy use has largely been forgotten. One can pick up a silver-plated salver for a song at an estate sale or on eBay today in this market.

The term salver was said to have been coined around 1661 in the second edition of Thomas Blount's Glossographia or, a dictionary interpreting the hard words of whatsoever language, now used in our refined English tongue. It defined around 11,000 unusual words, and was the largest English dictionary when it was first published in 1656.

Blount defined the salver as a new fashioned piece of "wrought plate broad and flat, with foot underneath, and is used in giving Beer or other liquid thing, to save the Carpit and Cloathes from drops."

Primarily used in England, the earliest salvers in the seventeenth century were thin-gauge metal plates raised on a central foot. They were created for the table top presentation of porringers, caudle cups, wine glasses and deserts. They prevented drips from staining the fine linen covering the table. The best examples were elaborately decorated with chased or embossed images of acanthus leaves, flowers and fruit around the rim.

The idea for this handy domestic item spread to America where John Coney of Boston produced a few in the late 1600s. No doubt he had an eye for modishness. (Collection of the MET)

By the end of the century, heavier metal was used. Sometimes the central foot was detachable so the salver could then be used as a tray. As salvers became more popular they were often presented as commemoratives from the royal court to a loyal servant for a job well done.

By the first quarter of the eighteenth century the central foot ceased to exist and was replaced by four little feet often in a bracket form, offering more balance that its predecessors. Silversmiths became creative and began making salvers in the shapes of squares, octagonals or even octafoils. Rims were molded or applied and the bowls were deep with convex or concave sides. Armorials were often engraved in the centre.

George I silver gilt salver by Augustin Courtauld, London, 1723. Fifteen-sided with a molded rim and raised on three pad feet. The center is engraved with a contemporary armorial within a Baroque cartouche. Sotheby's (NYC) October 2007 (sold: $139,000).

Late George I sterling salver, London, 1726, maker likely Jacob Foster. Pleasant floriform body engraved in the center with coat of arms. This time with six tapered feet. Estimated $600 - $800 and this lovely thing went for over $29,000. Skinner, April 2005. (The greasy fingerprints in the photo are bugging me.)

An interesting English sterling salver in triangular form with a rococo border and center armorial engraving by George Hindmarsh, 1737 – 1738. It has little scrolled feet. Pook & Pook April 2007.


In 1734, an inventory was taken of the estate of an Abraham de Peyster of New York. He was a merchant and among the numerous articles he had in his possession were ten silver salvers. The fashion for using salvers in America was well established indeed. A shell and molded boarder was the height of fashion in the 1730s. At this time, there were not very many silversmiths in America making salvers as they were busy producing tankards, bowls, beakers, porringers, and the like. It was English silver that was most prevalent in colonial America. Merchants often instructed ship captains or sent agents to England to procure silver goodies.

By Joseph Crouch, 1759. Available at iFranks.

Later in the century, salvers became handy to serve tea or coffee, protecting a tea table from spills and rings created by moisture. Many times tea tables were created to rest underneath a salver that fit the top perfectly.

During the Victorian times, it held letters, visiting cards, and such. Butlers would present the lady or man of the house these letters on a smaller form of a salver called waiters. Salvers have feet, waiters do not. Waiters are smaller in size only about generally less than 8 inches in diameter. Salvers can be around 15 inches in diameter.

Victorian sterling salver with a floral and bead border, engraved decoration and three cast ball and claw feet. Maker unknown but has the date and hallmarks for London 1899.

An Aesthetic Movement sterling salver marked Dominick & Haff, Newark and New York. 1855 - 1865. Nice hammered finish with eight applied copper and bronze plants, insects and lizard around rim. Raised on each corner by four eagle claw and ball feet. Cowan's Auctions, June 2004.

Japonisme. Circa 1900, by Whiting. Another nice hammered finish with a design of two sea turtles swimming amidst sea kelp. It has a short gallery no mention of what kind of feet. I am curious as I love this piece. Obviously, so did someone else as it fetched a price well over estimate of $500-$700. $14,950 at Cowan's in February 2007.

S. Kirk & Son sterling salver, round with repoussé floral border and plate with foliate wreath cartouche and circular decoration supported by four winged paw feet, 1903-1925. Brunk Auctions January, 2008.

On one November day at Skinner in 2005, bidding on a particular sterling salver by the New York maker Myer Myers opened at $15,000. It was reported to have a robustly molded edge. The saleroom floor was full and eager, but a flurry of phone activity caused the demand for the piece to increase. One phone caller won the piece for $99,500.

Yes, the silver salver was used to serve superiors, but one today can most certainly get the "look" with a $25 to $50 twentieth century silver plated salver.

A Victorian Essential… the Spoon Warmer???

A Victorian invention, of course, considered one of the essential “fancies” to every well-run household, the spoon warmer was very popular. One of a variety of articles created for the demanding and expanding middle class. Silver was seen as a measure of social status and the status conscious were eager to display their new found wealth. There could never be too many objects, you know, as dining rooms were meant to impress. So many glistening objects piled up on sideboards and dining tables, their legs must have quivered under the weight of it all. Spoon warmers were created in the days before central heating when breakfast consisted of hot porridge and the dinners needed to remain warm. Ceilings were high and their rooms drafty. Grasping a warm spoon must have seemed comforting. So little is known about spoon warmers today and not many people care, but it was an essential of its time. How could a proper house function if a warm dish suffered the affront of a cold stuffing spoon?

Most spoon warmers are made from silver plate. They were filled with boiling water and left on the table. All serving spoons were placed in it until needed, enabling them to remain warm before scooping into some rich dish.

There is considerable variation in design, some quite plain and others detailed and whimsical. The most common form is the nautilus shell. Other spoon warmers continue the theme of the sea taking the shape of an oyster shell, a buoy, a barrel and even the Greek god Triton, though I have never laid eyes on the latter, many nestled in a base elaborately embellished to look like rocks entwined with small seashells and seaweed.

My grandmother had an incredible one in the shape of a swan, I am told. The wings curving over the back hiding the slot for the spoon. I never had the chance to see it. Sadly, both she and the swan-shaped spoon warmer were gone before I came along.

They were made in huge numbers by the English but by only one maker here in America, Reed and Barton. Not all spoon warmers are marked so it makes it difficult to determine the maker.

A buoy complete with an anchoring chair fastening it to the rocky base. Shoddy image, my apologies. I took this from artfact. I have this one but it is packed away in storage.

This is the most typical spoon warmer. Christies (NYC) sold this Edwardian version by William Hutton & Sons, London, made 1904 in July 2002.

Alderfer Auction sold this one December 2001. Similar as above but with and etched decoration. Unmarked.

Also from my own collection, Atkin and Brothers last quarter 19th century.

For the lucky Irish, Charlton Hall Galleries, Inc. sold this in April 2006. It has three leaf clovers. Circa 1900 by Mappin & Webb. (My mother has this one...)

In the form of a shell resting on a fish. Available from Goldsmith & Perris.

Atkin Brothers, circa 1885, unfortunately sold by Estate Silver Co. Ltd - Anthony Mammon.

I am crazy for this one! I have one of an oyster shell but it is no where a fabulous as this. I love how the little clam sits as if almost alert wanting to say something on a rocky base. There is engraving of seaweed around the opening for the spoon. See more views of it here on Wax Antiques to see the detail of the seaweed on the base. No apparent maker. Circa 1880. Someone has already bought this.

Any turtle fans? Brunk Auctions sold this in May 2003.

A dolphin resting on crested waves. Sold at David Lay Frics Auction House, Alverton, Penzance, in January 2007. I don't like the patina on this one. The silver looks dipped at a later time.

Cannon Spoon Warmer By Elkington Made By Elkington & Co., 1880 (personal collection).

" I Dream of Genie". (What a sexist show, by the way). Available at iFranks circa 1870, by the London maker William Hutton. Note the decorated handle and reed borders around the lip and foot. Maker unknown, c. 1880, in the form of a cornucopia. Available from New Orleans Silversmiths.

Another goodie from Wax Antiques. Circa 1870.

Another one I'm crazy for. It is in the shape of a gondola with two oars resting on the base. Though the form reminds me more of a Viking ship. And the quality of this piece is reportedly particularly good. Circa 1880. Sold, ARGH!, from Wax Antiques in London.

In the form of an old shoe. I believe still available from Estate Silver Co. Ltd - Anthony Mammon. Is anyone else uncomfortable with the idea of sticking a spoon in something that is supposed to look like an old smelly crusty shoe?

My favorite designer… Christopher Dresser (1834-1904). The true father of modern design created this very mod Spoon Warmer in 1881. It has an ebony handle and made by Hukin & Heath, Birmingham. (I snagged this image from artnet.) This is my most favorite. Kind of reminds me of a spaceship.

In our efficient warm homes today the need for spoon warmers has passed but there are a number of different ways they can still be used – tucked into a book shelf, displayed on a fireplace mantel, stuffed with sprigs of spring flowers. An interesting and relatively inexpensive oddity to collect.

TH Robsjohn-Gibbings Limos chairs in natural ceruse finish and a breakfast table by De Coene Freres, Belgium, c. 1930. Stuart Weitzman Nuhyper boots.