Butter Paddle & Butter Print Stamp ‘Deck of Cards’

Victorian

Circa 1800–1900 | Unknown (Possibly Australian)

A large very tactile antique wooden butter paddle and print. This piece is highly unusual and I have never seen another like it. I think it’s a butter paddle with the one side hand carved, interestingly in bas relief, in a naïve style with what appear to be a range of lucky symbols from a deck of cards, as well as a horse and horse shoes. Butter paddles were used in Victorian times in the whole process of making butter (see The Gen). This is a collector’s piece for any collector of antique butter stamps.

DIMENSIONS: Length 29.5 cm, Width 8 cm.

CONDITION: In very good condition, wear consistent with an antique age and use.

REFERENCES: For an example of similar butter pats, see the pair held at the Powerhouse Museum, Object No. K1191. The pair held at the museum are not decorated, however they do appear to be made of the same wood and simple shape. There are two butter pieces held at the Smithsonian, one a wooden butter paddle, Accession Number: 28810 and the other a butter or cheese mould Accession Number: 1990.0447. Each of these is carved and may mean that this item is an early American piece.

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THE GEN

“A whole range of wooden utensils, very often of sycamore, was employed for squeezing water out of butter, scooping it from churns and shaping it. Wooden pats, one held in each hand, were among the commonest kitchen tools for handling the finished butter, for making it into blocks and giving the ribbed pattern which immediately imparts an appetising appearance.” (The Observer’s Book of Kitchen Antiques, John Woodforde, Fredrick Warne (Publishers) Ltd, 1982, p. 102)

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