Thread: Vintage scuttles

I ended up with these two vintage scuttles and shave muc in a lot with some other stuff. I'll probably end up keeping one, but I'd like to learn a bit about them before I offer them up.


Both scuttles say Ironstone Staffordshire England on the bottom. There's holes to let the steam through to warm the soap? But I would think you'd lose some lather through them...


Has anyone seen this design or this manufacturer before?

From what I've gathered the holes are so the water drains into the bottom and doesnt melt away your soap.
They are cool looking scuttles, especially the first one. I did find some info on Ironstone here http://www.thepotteries.org/types/ironstone.htm
also this site talks about fakes, Victoria Ironstone is mentioned at the bottom
http://www.saltspring.com/cfowles/fakes/
The Mark on the bottom doesn't look like one of those. Maybe contact them with the pics and they might be able to tell you at least if they are real or fake. Either way they are nice looking.

Bob

Thanks Bob! I sent them an email with a couple pictures asking for possible information. I'm not overly concerned, as if I sell one or both of them it will be as vintage scuttles to fellow shavers as opposed to collectible antique pottery of a certain brand name. Still, I'm interested in knowing more about them.

[FONT='Calibri','sans-serif']Scuttles were used in the days before people had hot running water in the bathroom you would fill the bottom with hot water this would soften the soap by the steam rising though the holes by the time you got from the kitchen to the bathroom or bedroom, you would then dip your brush in the side to get at the hot water which drained back into the bottom of the scuttle though the said holes, I still use one instead off a mug[/FONT]

The design of the first one on the left there is almost identical to a scuttle I have sold by Floris in the past. The painted design is a little different, but the shape and all is the same. Beyond that I don't know any more. They're cool products though.

Jordan

Those are nice looking! If you decide to split them up, I'd be interested in one of the scuttles.

Those are handsome scuttles. I have three of them, one bought from classicshaving.com and two off of ebay. I enjoy using them and I believe this week will be scuttle week for me! maybe the following week as well. By the by, Chelsea's Soap garden, an ebay store has some of the best scuttle sized soaps. http://stores.ebay.com/Chelseas-Soap...QQftidZ2QQtZkm
Ernest

I thought the lather was made in a mug that stored the soap. Then the lathered brush was transferred to the top of the scuttle with the three holes for water to drain and heat to go to the lathered brush.
I have several old scuttles like you show and it'd be a real bugger to lather in that small space with the three holes.

ANy other ideas.
I'm usually wrong about stuff so let us know, please.

When my grandfather used his scuttle, he'd have a puck of Williams in the top, load his brush from there and lather on his face. I'm not saying that's the correct way, but it is what he did (and it seems somewhat logical to me).

I agree that that seems the logical way with these older scuttles. It seems that the holes would allow steam up to soften the soap, and excess water to drain. With the newer scuttles (sans holes) it seems the logical way would be to load the brush and then build the lather in the scuttle. But I'll just have to wait until I get one of those to find out