Kitchenalia

Last year I paid £150 for an 18 ins long piece of fruitwood about 2 ins wide hand carved with stylised flower heads. Why? You might well ask. The attraction was all due to the combination of the lovely colour and polished surface ie the patina, allied with the fact that it dated to about 1800. On top of all that was the human touch because the objects original purpose was for beating water soaked laundry. My "washing bat" qualifies as being a significant item of "Kitchenalia".

The kitchen has always the been the focal point not only cooking but most other domestic chores and has taxed the inventive powers of generations seeking labour saving devices. The gadgets and tools of those bygone years has led to a new breed of collectors of all things used not only in the kitchen but also the scullery and the dairy. Some tend to specialise in cooking paraphanalia such as copper and pottery jelly moulds or carved wood baking moulds and spice boxes.

Throughout the 19th century the Scottish town of Mauchline, near Ayr, was the centre for the production of all manner of useful wood tools and containers refered to today under the generic term of treen. Kitchenalia collectors are usually on the lookout for "Mauchline Ware" spice towers of cylindrical and sectional form with each of the four or more boxes applied with a paper label. The most frequently found labels are for mace, nutmeg, ginger and all spice. When it comes to value the overall condition is all important and a clean example is worth between £300 and £400.

Other treen items at one time found in the Victorian kitchen might include pasty cutters prices starting from as little as £10 or a pair of butter pats at £20. A butter wheel will cost you nearer £80,similar in appearance to a pastry cutter but with a wider wheel incise carved with a fanciful design that was rolled onto the surface of the butter. A sycamore butter print measuring about 3 ins dia and incised with a flower or fruit basket is likely to be priced in the region of £60 larger elliptical examples can be £200.

Collecting "Dairy" memorabilia often calls for deep pockets especially where pottery cream and milk pails are concerned. The big money tends to go those elaborately titled examples originally destined as shop displays. A Royal Doulton milk pail Circa 1900 colour printed with grazing cattle starts at £300. A 22 ins high white pottery milk churn printed in black with a pair of cows and labelled "Pure Milk"is the ultimate collectors "must have" but at £1,500 a time do you really need a pair.

Probably the most ubiquitous of all ceramic kitchenalia has to be the jelly and blancmange mould the rarest dating back to the 18th century. Some of the earliest examples were made by such eminent potters as Wedgwood Spode and Copeland. Prices depend on maker size and decorative feature. Rabbits appear to have been a Victorian favourite, a clean mould selling in the region of £80 whereas a ribbed tower might be nearer £50 but crossed tennis racquets would be £100 plus.

Laundry irons tend to be the preserve of a merry band of collectors and with prices starting from as little as £20 for an early 20 th century smoothing iron they still represent reasonable value for money. Goffering irons of cylindrical barrel form were heated internally by inserting a red hot poker. Once removed starched fabrics could be pressed against the heated barrel and crimped. Prices depend on age, size, and the number of barrels featured, the simplest are usually to be found at £40 with the Georgian polished brass examples with a large and small barrels on tripod feet rarely priced at less than £300.

Jenny Ross from Northumberland has been in touch and wants to know if her Victorian mangle might have any value. Looking at the ornate and pierced cast iron supports and massive wood rollers I was transported back to the late 1950's when my Gran used a similar example every Monday. Your mangle is cast with the name Sheldon, an Irish maker, and probably dates to about 1870. Unfortunately its massive size restricts its value to little more than £200.