Jelly Mold Core
date: label: date made
content: 1778-1800
notes: label: Description
content: This creamware core for a jelly mold, in the form of a pyramid or obelisk, was made after 1778 by Neale & Co in Staffordshire, England, and was used to make table center decorations for fashionable dining. The Wedgwood manufactory made similar items, and in the late 18th century, American consumers purchased most of their fine pottery and china from dealers who imported goods from England.
label: Description
content: The outer section of the mold is missing, but this decorated core was positioned on a rim inside the outer core. With the assembled mold inverted, liquid calves’-foot jelly was poured into the cavity through the holes. When the jelly had set, the mold was turned upright, and the outer core gently lifted off, allowing the floral pattern to appear through the transparent wall of jelly.
label: Description
content: In the later 19th century, the Victorian passion for colorful edible jellies took hold, generally made in copper or tin molds. Table decorations made of molded marzipan, sugar paste, butter, ice, ice cream, and jelly were often highly elaborate, and their use in banqueting has a long and colorful history. The pyramid, or obelisk, was a motif that appeared in designs for table decorations from the 16th to the early 19th centuries. Eighteenth-century European porcelain and fine earthenware manufactories produced figurines and table centers in imitation of earlier decorations made of sugar paste.
label: Description
content: With our thanks to food historian Ivan Day, of Historic Food at Wreay Farm near Penrith in Cumbria, England, please see www.historicfood.com to see how this item was used in the 18th century.
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England
topic: label: related event
content: Colonization and Settlement
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
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content: Food
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content: Family & Social Life
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content: Domestic Furnishings
label: Exhibition
content: On the Water
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CE.065.049
label: catalog number
content: 065.049
label: accession number
content: 277962
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Jelly Mold
label: Object Name
content: jelly mold core
label: Object Name
content: jelly Mold Core
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: polychrome (overall surface decoration color name)
label: Physical Description
content: ceramic, earthenware, refined (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 in x 7 in x 7 in; 22.86 cm x 17.78 cm x 17.78 cm