FW: FW: [Sca-cooks] Paper twists of spice (Was spice storage)

[kingstaste at mindspring.com]

More info from the off-list Temair. (She's just recently developed a
late-period persona - Dona Teresa - living at 5 minutes to midnight, 1599 so
she's perpetually 29 :)  Temair is 6th Cent. Irish.
Christianna


Thanks for the pic.  Did you look at it?  The paper twist looks like a
page from a book.  And I really, really like the nautilus shell goblet
(behind and to the left of the spice plate).

I would disagree about paper twists being 'period'.  As usual, it
depends on when and where.  For Temair no, for Dona Teresa, probably
yes.  Books were printed for 150 years by that time, there must have
been some that no one wanted.  A quick google search found:

"Until the sixteenth century, buying and trading were done mainly in
bulk.  There was little need for wrapping or packaging.  Customers
provided their own containers, such as baskets, jugs, or bowls.  But as
towns and cities grew, goods could be purchased in smaller quantities
as they were needed, and it was convenient to do shopping more
frequently.  Therefore, items such as grain, beans, buttons, and
needles required some kind of wrapping or packaging to contain these
smaller quantities.

Bookstores often took manuscripts that failed to sell as reading
materials and sold them to merchants as scraps for wrapping paper.  The
paper was twisted into a cone and folded up at the bottom.  This became
the first paper bag.  Soon paper makers also discovered that they could
use the course settlings from the bottom of their vats to make a
low-quality wrapping paper."

http://silosandsmokestacks.org/resources/FieldTripGuide/shopping_bag_history
_project.htm
 (with the usual caveat for internet info)
Tara