[Sca-cooks] English and French pottery was re: tableware

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 10:30 PM 3/26/02 -0800, you wrote:

>All this being said, this is not to say that trenchers were never used.
>They probably were (I'm sure others on this list can clarify this better
>than I).  What I believe, however, is that ceramics were probably used more
>than most people realize and that trenchers weren't the only things used.
>--Arte

Ah- well, I did not suggest that pottery was not used, but pointing out
that plates/trenchers (not of bread) are a rarity on the medieval feast
table. I know pottery was used for serving plates and bowls, for cups, for
jugs and ewers, etc. Even lamps. Matter of fact, you've probably see the
Puzzle Jug? IIRC it's 13th c., English, a jug with piercings and tunnels
and all sorts of things. And if you don't tip it just right, it goes all
over your lap! An amazing example of a potter's skill.

Yup- there's a great deal of pottery in ditches and dungheaps and middens
and ruins of all sorts. I suspect that a great many things were made of
pottery that we would not necessarily think of. Heck- the Old Testament Job
even used a broken shard of pottery to scrape at the boils as he sat
listening to the counsel of his 'friends'!

I just don't think I can support it being used as plates/trenchers to eat
off of, that's all. Nor can I support wood or metal for the same purpose.
They don't appear in teh pictures, nor in inventories, etc. But when they
finally appear in very late period, the majority seem to be metal, and
'plate' was a popular thing to pawn if you got into difficulties.

'Lainie