Object Type

This type of serving dish, with a removable strainer, could be adapted for use at different meals. At breakfast it could be half-filled with hot water and used for serving kidneys, bacon or poached eggs, kept warm in the strainer. In Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management of 1888, on the other hand, a diagram of a breakfast table describes two similar revolving covered dishes as holding muffins. At dinner the drainer section could be removed to serve soup or retained to keep warm an entrée such as hash. Contemporary manufacturers' trade catalogues described similar items as 'breakfast or entrée dishes' or 'soup tureens with revolving covers'.

Design & Designing

The revolving cover of this dish must have been a novelty when it was first developed. The design appears in the Elkington & Co. pattern books of the mid-1870s. Although these dishes could cost twice as much as an ordinary entrée dish or soup tureen, consumers valued them for their versatility.

Provenance

The value and status of silver has meant that ownership of silver tableware can be traced through the coats of arms and crests engraved on it. Throughout history people in Britain have valued silver and used it as a reward or to mark significant personal events such as marriage. The inscription records that this dish was given by his staff to Captain Frank Johnson, Governor of HM Prison Pentonville, to mark his retirement. The cover is made of electroplated nickel silver, which by the late 19th century had become a socially acceptable and cheaper alternative to silver and could be presented as a mark of respect in exactly the same way.