Quentin Blake at Compton Verney, Jean Cooke at the Garden Museum, the Silver Swan at The Bowes Museum and more…
EDITED BY CAROLINE WHEATER & RACHEL NOTT
JULY
THE ANTIQUE: Silver sugar casters
Strawberry season is in full flow, with veg patches and grocers’ shelves full of these delicious soft fruits that only require a sprinkle of sugar and a dollop of cream to turn them into pudding perfection. According to English Heritage food historian Sam Bilton, only the small Alpine strawberries were available in Tudor and Stuart times. The modern strawberry descends from 18th-century crossbreeding of Virginia strawberries from America with larger Chilean strawberries and, by the 19th century, Britain had become renowned for its range of large, succulent varieties which were known as les fraises Anglaises (several of them, including Royal Sovereign, grow in the kitchen garden of Audley End House). In Victorian times, when seasonality was everything, the arrival of the first punnets of summer strawberries was a cause for celebration. To sprinkle sugar over the juicy fruits, a caster was used (sometimes called a sifter), and many silver versions were made throughout the last 300 years. Popular antique designs include the lighthouse form, the baluster form with domed top, the bulbous form, plus novelties such as animals. Many are engraved with leaves and stems and have beautifully pierced tops for the sugar to fall through. Casters are good value at auction, starting at around £100–£150, so browse salerooms to see if there’s something you’d like to bid on.
THE EXHIBITIONS Movement: The Magic of the Silver Swan
8th July – 7th January 2024 The Bowes Museum, County Durham
Besides the wonderful quilts, tapestries, artworks, ceramics and costumes, over the years many visitors to The Bowes Museum have made a beeline for the magnificent Silver Swan automaton, hoping to be in time to see its daily performance of a graceful dip in the glassy ‘water’ to catch a fish. Owners of the chateau-like Bowes, John and Josephine, first saw the swan at the Paris International Exhibition in 1867 and fell in love with it. And many more since have been captivated by the mechanical creature’s grace an
