When I was in Australia this summer, I bought (in a thrift shop in Lismore, NSW) a small, round, glass container, about three inches high, with a black (bakelite?) lid that had a small opening in the top. A tiny glass spoon with a shell-like bowl goes into the opening. I bought it because I liked it, but now that I am home it is driving me crazy every time I look at it wondering what it was used for. I thought about salt, but it doesn’t look old enough. Any ideas… anyone?
A vial to put your cocaine in and a little spoon to scoop it out and snort it? Little tiny coke spoons were more popular in years past than they are now, I think. In the seventies wild and crazy guys would wear them on chains around their necks and McDonald’s supposedly changed the design of their coffee stirrers because they were perfect for snorting coke.
Three inches? That’s a lot of coke! Naw, I think it’s more likely to be a mustard pot. You can see dozens of them on ebay, some with spoons, some without. Here’s one.
Aseymayo is right. If it’s too big to fit in your pocket it’s definitely not for cocaine! Can’t imagine why that was the first thing I thought of.
“I thought about salt, but it doesn’t look old enough”
It need only be forty years old. I grew up downunder, and live in Oz and I’m pretty sure what you have is a salt cellar. We had one similar to what you describe. when I grew up, used “for best”, ie when we had company (when it was just the family, we used the packet). I believe it was called a cellar in an earlier sense of the word as a place of storage, rather than as an underground place.
Sometimes the salt cellar would sit in a little stand, usually with a handle rising from the centre of the stand. Along with the salt container would be matching vessels - a pepper shaker, vinegar bottle, bottle for Worcester sauce, etc. This stand was called a cruet, and the cruet set was a popular wedding present from oh, mid-victorian times to the early fifties (I was only there for the last part of that period). The idea was you’d add some or all of these things to your food to increase it’s palatability. “Pass the cruet, George!”
The whole concept comes out of the British tradition of cooking and eating, so it might not have ever existed in the US which I believe owes more to german, irish and pre-victorian english traditions.
As usual, the first guess is correct.
Hope you liked Australia - we LOVE it!
aseymayo has it I think. Probably more likely to be a mustard pot. We had those too. And they also belonged on a cruet set. And at least I got to tell someone about cruet sets - nobody I know is interested…
Redboss, the spoon in the picture of the mustard pot is much, much bigger than my spoon. My spoon would probably hold one-eighth of a teaspoon. So, I think you are right; since salt cellars existed and were in use much later than I thought, it seems logical that this is what I have. And, if you all haven’t been there, Australia is wonderful. For the most beautiful, awe-inspiring beaches in the world, go to Byron Beach in NSW. The Australian people are so sweet, and very friendly. There are lots of small, thriving villages, like it used to be here before malls and the chains made every place the same. I loved it. AND, I loved the tropical flora (but not the fauna (spiders!)), and having bananas and macadamias for sale on the side of the road. Many thanks to you all for the input.
It’s true the spoon you describe sounds more like a salt spoon, but since the purchase was from a thrift shop, there’s no guarantee the spoon is original to the pot. Salt cellars rarely have lids, but most mustard pots have the notched lid.
All good guesses, here’s mine.
Before saccarine (sp?) tablets were taken off the market, some folks, in the U.S. at least, had miniature “sugar bowls” with a spoon sized for the tablets. As I recall the tablets were only 3-4 MM in diameter. Might be one of those.
Just what I was gonna say, all I can add is that my Aunt Ruth kept just such a bowl on her table- with loose saccharine.
Cartooniverse
[assemayo**
That looks like a huge spoon for use on mustard, unless…
English mustard is way hot, extremely very hot indeed, you only need a tiny amount of it or it will make your eyes water.
If that pot was for the US market then it makes sense since US mustard is, to me anyway, a rather insipid tastless thing.
The spoon the OP describes sounds like an English mustard pot so the spoon would be something around 1/4" across the bowl.
Strong English mustard has become much less popular these days with fancy whole grain, French and all manner of other types becoming more popular.
The big maker of mustard in the UK was Colmans Mustard in its characteristic yellow pots.
English mustard was so hot is was said that Jeremiah Colman made his fortune not from what was consumed but from what was left on the side of the plate.
I can’t tell from your description how big the spoon and container are other than “tiny” and “three inches high.” However, being a pipe smoker, my first guess was a tobacco jar with the spoon used to scoop the tobacco into the pipe bowl. I know, you ask, why not just use your fingers? Well, if you smoke black cavendish, the tobacco leaves a lingering stain on your fingers that makes one think you’ve been scratching your…well, never mind.
Anyway, the only thing missing is a tamper or a place to hold a tamper. This would be a small (less than dime size) disk attached to a handle used to press the tobacco down into the bowl. If it is a tobacco container, I would expect to find that with the spoon, or at least room for one.
I vote for the saccharine bowl. Here’s an example, which seems close in dimension and shape to the OP’s description:
http://www.tias.com/stores/sotv/pictpages/China_and_Dinnerware/041.html
I perused the Ebay site and it looks like it may be a mustard pot, IF the spoons were very, very small e.g. for the super-hot mustard. I think the spoon goes with the pot because the pot itself has decorative lines around the middle and the spoon has similar lines that make it resemble a clam shell. The black lid may not be original, but if so, it looks like bakelite. Isn’t bakelite from the 30’s? Then it wouldn’t be for saccharine. OKKKK…