figure of a woman; German, 1680-1720, pearwood, 75/2516

Culinary mould of pearwood, incised on both sides for stamping patterns on cakes. On one side are two designs; including a shepherd and two sheep, as well as a basket containing a pelican in her piety. On the reverse, a woman holding a basket and a bird, and bearing on her back a pannier of food.

Culinary moulds were carved in intaglio (the design carved into the block) in various hardwoods, usually boxwood or fruitwoods, to create shapes or surface patterns for gingerbread, sweetmeats or the sugar sculptures that were made to decorate grand banquets or desserts from the 16th century onwards. Gingerbread moulds might be fairly simple, for pieces sold at fairs, but some of the moulds for sugar sculptures could be very complicated, and provide shapes for various parts of a decoration, that were then joined with sugar paste into three-dimensional objects (temples, beds, animals). This mould is likely to have been made for gingerbread.

116-1906