[Sca-cooks] table fountains

Stefan li Rous StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Thu Oct 26 21:22:47 PDT 2006


I am currently reading "Feast - A History of Grand Eating" by Roy  
Strong.

On page 99-100 in the medieval section he says:
"Ironically it [the nef] was not the salt that was destined to be the  
greatest of all the display pieces but the table fountain.  These  
were not only ches d'oeuvre of the goldsmith's craft but were items  
of extreme ingenuity, involving the movement of liquids, wine or  
perfumed waters, which spurted or spouted and whose pressure caused  
figures to move or bells to jingle. We know that they already existed  
in the thirteenth century, and they begin turning up in inventories  
in the fourteenth century." Various examples of these fountains. "The  
surviving example in the museum at Cleveland (ohio), despite its  
missing basin and foot, gives some impression of the magnificence of  
these pieces, whose sole purpose was to amaze."

So, anyone near Cleveland seen this?

Has anyone created such a fountain for a feast?

While it is probably more appropriate for a headtable, it still might  
be intriguing for a regular table. My first idea would be to use a  
pump from one of the miniature table fountains that have become  
popular in the last few years, or maybe even use the correct style of  
fountain itself as a starting point. I'm not quite sure how to get  
the auxiliary items to do their movements, but I can see using  
additional motors or the flowing liquid itself.

Does anyone have any ideas on how they would have done one of these  
fountains in period, since the modern cheat of using small battery  
driven pumps wasn't available? I can see using a storage resevoir at  
a higher position, but without recirculating the liquid i imagine the  
amount of liquid squirting out of the fountain would have to be a  
tiny stream. Unless they were removed after one course.

I can also imagine some problems if the fountain malfunctions and  
starts squirting red wine about.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****





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