Art Nouveau Quadruple Silver Plate Butter Dish by Forbes Silver Company, with a deeply lobed empire shape lid with ornate roses, and a footed and handled butter dish base.
The deeply embossed floral roses in the art nouveau style have been applied to the alternating eight lobes, with an ornate Victorian scroll monogram in the center of one of the lobes. From what we can discern, the hand-engraved intials (in order) are TTC. The silverplate is worn on parts of the lobes, but overall, this Victorian silver butter dish lid retains more than 50% of its original silverplate. The lid is just slightly out of shape.
The lower portion of the butter dish has two ornate prongs on the front to accept a butter knife, two sturdy handles with leaf decoration at the attachment and four very ornate feet with scrolls. The edge of the rim is slightly turned upright and features ornate feathered scrolls.
The tops of the handles show a moderate amount of silverplate wear, the outside base of the lower butter dish retains 90% of its original silverplate, the rim shows slight silverplate wear and the inside shows a moderate amount of useage and some silverplate loss due to pitting.
Years ago, cooking in America called for tremendous amounts of butter. Though margarine made its appearance during World War II, there was no substitute for butter when most of the silver shown on this page was produced.
In order to use butter in the large one-pound blocks in which it was generally sold, a dish was invented that not only helped with the presentation at the table, but was a necessity. Most silver and silverplate butter dishes consist of three silver parts: the lid, the pierced liner, and the base. Butter was placed on the liner, allowing the excess water from the butter to drain through the piercing. If the weather was warm, ice was added with the butter on top, and the melting ice could drain through the piercing.
These silver and silverplated dishes are also known as domed butter dishes, covered butter dishes and just butter dishes. These more ornate butter dishes are less common than the more commonly seen rectangular butter dishes - just slightly larger than a stick of modern butter. Rarely does one see these rounded butter dishes in use anymore, and they have achieved a strong collecting following.
For fancy dinners, the hostess may have had one of the servants make fancy molded pieces of butter called “butter pats” or butter balls, which were served on crushed ice in the butter dish to be picked up with a butter pick. These required yet another butter serving piece, itself known as a “butter pat.” Butter pats were tiny plates placed at each individual setting, to be used for a single piece of butter. They range in diameter from approximately 2 2/5 inches to about 3 ¼ inches, and were made in sterling as well in porcelain. Many sterling silver companies produced butter pats to match their sterling flatware patterns.
As butter began to be commercially produced for distribution in individually wrapped quarter pound cubes, the large form became obsolete. Thus the butter dish began a new form. This new dish usually had a crystal liner, to protect the silver from the salt used in making the butter. Most of the new butter dish forms are 8 – 9 inches long.
This ornate FORBES quadruple silver plate butter dish is touchmarked on the base with FORBES SILVER CO., the important Forbes eagle logo, QUDRUPLE, and the pattern/order number "227". The butter dish measures 7.5" handle to handle, 6" in diameter, 6" high and weighs 1 pound, 1.7 ounces. You can read more about the history of Forbes Silver Co. from our Silver Manufacturers pages.
A999 - Ornate FORBES Quadruple Silverplate Covered Butter Dish - Art Nouveau Style #227
$125.00
