[Sca-cooks] Tudor Wax Fountain

[Stefan li Rous]

Alys Katharine mentioned:

<<< Greetings!  There is a new video of the Hampton Court cooks'  
attempt at a miniature wax fountain which you can see at http:// 
tudorcook.blogspot.com/ .  It isn't completed yet but you can see how  
it functions.  There are also some nice blogs about recent recipes. >>>

I only glanced through this, so I may have missed some text, but I  
did see the video of the wax fountain. I didn't find any explanation  
of what this fountain was for.

We've talked a little bit previously about these small, table  
fountains (see this Florilegium file:
table-fountns-msg (14K)  6/10/07    Elaborate tabletop fountains used to
                                        distribute wine or perfumed  
waters. ).

But what is this wax fountain for? Is it just for looks? If so, why  
use wax and not water or another liquid? I assume that the liquid  
flowing through the fountain is wax and not that this means that the  
fountain is made of wax. And, particularly in period, how would they  
keep the wax from solidifying in the fountain? Not too difficult to  
do today with electric heating elements, but then...

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 ****