English Breadboard ‘Long Life and Happiness’

Victorian

Circa 1890 | England

A rare antique Victorian wedding breadboard. This antique breadboard retains its deep carving throughout. The top border contains the motto “Long Life and Happiness” in gothic script, an example that is rarely found today, and was given as a wedding gift to a young couple (see The Gen).

The half bottom border is intricately carved with leaves, what look like strawberries and centre motif of two wedding bells and a horseshoe for luck. It has a lovely deep patina in the carving, retains its breadcrumb gully and raised centre.

DIMENSIONS: Diameter 30.5 cm.

SIGNATURES, MARKINGS & INSCRIPTIONS: Attribution of antique English breadboards is difficult as the were hundreds of carvers of breadboards or “bread-platters” as they were known in Victorian times.

CONDITION: In excellent condition. The breadboard has a lovely patina evident through the untouched colour and wear, light knife marks and lovely golden warm colour. 

REFERENCES: For an example of a similar antique breadboard with the “Long Life and Happiness” motto see Vintage Breadboards, Madeleine Neave, Prospect Books, 2019, p. 222.

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THE GEN

“Boards also became very popular wedding gifts, almost a standard kit for a bride’s trousseau. Wing does not have an off-the-peg Wedding Board in 1886, but in his later catalogue, two versions appear, suggesting this may have trended around 1890s onwards.” (Vintage Breadboards, Madeleine Neave, Prospect Books, 2019, p. 87) 

The Wing dynasty of breadboard makers flourished from humble beginnings and “The whole family must have got a kick out of seeing ‘On a Bread-Platter’ in Punch Magazine, dated 24 July 1880. Punch’s cartoon lampooning sub-standard education for the populace, showed a mother trying to teach her son how to read the words in Gothic lettering running around the border of the family bread-platter. Hot on the heels of this endorsement came a number of trade awards.” (Vintage Breadboards, Madeleine Neave, Prospect Books, 2019, p. 192) There is no doubt that Wing breadboards would have been a cherished wedding gift.

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