[Sca-cooks] trenchers

[Terry Decker]

While it's been around for a few thousand years, majolica came back into 
vogue in 14th Century Spain and was given widespread popularity in Italy by 
the Della Robbia family of Florence.  I don't have any information on the 
trade in majolica handy, do you?

Bear


> Ceramic/pottery trenchers. Maiolica ceramics.
>
> Lyse
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Porcelain became available as an Asian import in the 16th Century. 
> European
> porcelain manufacture began around 1575, but it wasn't perfected until the
> 17th Century.  One also needs to consider glass and very delicate 
> stoneware
> as a stop gap between bread and porcelain.  I'm also certain that there 
> was
> overlap between fashions.
>
> Precious metals in plates were used all through period, but I think you 
> will
> find they were more widely used in Southern Europe, where bread trenchers
> appear to be of limited use or non-existent.  Metal and wood were probably
> also used for dishes carried in one's baggage, as witness a painting of 
> John
> of Gaunt at table.  Some manor accounts show an annual or semi-annual
> purchase of stoneware, largely mugs and bowls, to replace broken dishes.
>
> Bear