Victorian
22 July 1868 | England
An exceptional antique Victorian large pewter ice-cream mould shaped in naturalistic form to represent a pumpkin or ‘Fancy Melon’. The three-piece mould is complete with original copper alloy pins. This mould would have been used for making an impressive centrepiece for a banquet table. It is an early mould well before the Victorians ice-cream mania made Agnes Bertha Marshall famous and led her to be known as the ‘Queen of Ices’ (see The Gen).
DIMENSIONS: Width 15.5 cm, Height Maximum 13 cm.
SIGNATURES, MARKINGS & INSCRIPTIONS: Marked on the outside “LONDON”. Inside the mould it is stamped 49 and has a registration lozenge for 22 July 1868.
CONDITION: The mould is in exceptional condition and looks to be unused. There is some light wear to the outside, but inside the mould is as bright as the day it was made. It is complete with hinge pins and all three pieces and is in good working form.
REFERENCES: For examples of a similar mould called ‘Fancy Melon’ see page 12 of the advertisements in Fancy Ices, Mrs A.B. Marshall, 1894 where it came in two sizes: No. 1 (1½ pints) and No. 2 (1 quart). For a similarly sized mould of asparagus with the same registration lozenge and similar alloy copper pins see Object No. A7655 at the Powerhouse Museum.
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THE GEN
From about the early 1880s Agnes Bertha Marshall started her many business ventures. She was known to have been the first person to suggest using liquid nitrogen to freeze ice-cream. In Victorian England she became famous for being the person who made ice-cream popular and available for everyone when it was only available to the upper classes.
She not only wrote cookbooks and a weekly newspaper called The Table; she also ran a cookery school and employment agency; invented a patented freezer; and ran a store which sold amongst other items over 1000 different varieties of moulds!
Born in 1852, Agnes died in 1905 aged 52. Having had such success during her lifetime her reputation sadly faded with the passing of years.
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