Mystery Object No. 5 - the Solution

 This pretty little thing is actually a lipstick case!

(c) Geffrye Museum, London



As the clue we posted gave away, it was made in the US. The text reading 'Exotic 2' is the shade of lipstick it was made to hold.

This particular lipstick was made between 1920 and 1960, but lipstick was used far earlier than that. It's thought that people started wearing lipstick as long ago as 5000 years. It's thought that ancient Mesopotamian women invented it by crushing semi-precious jewels, and it was very popular among Ancient Egyptians: Cleopatra wore lipstick made from crushed insects!

Lipstick wasn't used in England until much later, when Queen Elizabeth I first made it popular for upper class women in the 1500s. But it wasn't until 1884 that the first 'modern' lipstick was sold in Paris, made from deer tallow, castor oil and beeswax, and sold wrapped up in silk paper.

At first, all make-up had to be stored in small containers like pots and dishes - you can see many of these in museum collections of ancient objects - but this did make them quite tricky to use. The 'push up' lipstick everyone knows today and which makes lipstick much easier to use wasn't invented until the 1920s and 30s,  which is when manufacturers started producing make-up in many different shades. That was when objects like this one arrived - perfect pretty cases for telling your different shades apart!

You can read more about this particular lipstick case here.

Congratulations to anyone who guessed right on this or any of our other mystery objects - personally, I think some of them were quite tough!

Mystery Object No. 5 - Something Silver

Yes that’s right, Mystery Object hasn’t gone away! This will, however, be our last instalment as our project is drawing to a close very soon – we’re very sad about this!

Anyway, here’s your last mystery object:

(c) Geffrye Museum, London

Simple question: what do you think was kept in this object?

And of course we’ll give you a clue - you get an extra picture this time!

(c) Geffrye Museum, London

Post your answers in the blog comments or via our Twitter feed.

You can check whether you got it right on Monday.

Royal weddings: souvenir mugs

Royal souvenir mugs are one of the ways in which the English have made tea drinking their own. Royal marriages, coronations and even divorces and deaths are all marked by a proliferation of porcelain.

No sooner had William and Kate announced their engagement on 16th November 2010 than the rush to produce memorabilia began. Many producers already had designs ready and waiting in anticipation of such an announcement, and in some cases mugs were available almost overnight.

As a museum of the home, the Geffrye’s collections reflect the nation’s tendency to commemorate royal events with homewares. We were allowed into the museum stores to investigate some of the objects from their collection of royal memorabilia.

Royal memorabilia in the Geffrye Museum stores

This beaker commemorates the coronation of George V in 1911, and includes a local commemorative inscription, in which Bethnal Green is represented as a rural idyll.

Coronation mug of George V, 1911. Geffrye Museum, London

Coronation mug of George V, 1911. Geffrye Museum, London

Many would say you can’t have tea without biscuits – never fear, the royal souvenir market has that covered too, as this commemorative biscuit tin, from the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953 demonstrates.

Biscuit tin commemorating coronation of Elizabeth II, 1953. Geffrye Museum, London.

One could have enjoyed dunking a nice biscuit from one’s coronation tin (preferably something involving chocolate) into one’s coronation mug.

Coronation mug of Elizabeth II, 1953. Geffrye Museum, London

Memorabilia of less popular royals is rarer and therefore more valuable today: mugs marking the coronation of the philandering, gambling George IV in 1820, for example, can fetch £3,500. Far more numerous were mugs marking his death, worth around £700 today.

While royal memorabilia was not common until Victorian times, its roots can be traced back to the reign of Charles II (1660-1685), when royal pomp was encouraged after eleven years of royal exile following the execution of Charles I in 1649. The ceramics collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum includes a colourful little mug bearing a picture of Charles II. Tea at this time was hugely expensive, and this cup was probably meant for display or for drinking strong ale.

From one of the earliest royal commemorative mugs back to the most recent, we're betting that in the long run, these mugs accidentally depicting Harry alongside Kate rather than William will turn out to be the most sought-after souvenirs of the occasion.

Manufacturers of William and Kate mugs do not just have their eyes on the British market, but the international market. Memorabilia connected with the British royal family is popular the world over, especially in the USA.

As Asda put it: ‘Nothing says congratulations like your face on a mug.’

It’s just not official unless we can drink tea out of it.

Mystery Object No. 4 - the Solution

This week, we asked you to guess what this object would have been used for in the eighteenth century:

Hot water urn, c.1790 (c) Geffrye Museum, London

When first seeing this object in the Geffrye Museum, we did something of a double take. It looks familiar – rather like a sporting trophy – yet the tap sticking out of it would suggest that it is intended for something quite different.

It is, in fact, a hot water urn, to be used to replenish a teapot without the need to interrupt a tea party by calling for a servant, made in around 1790.

When tea first started to be drunk in English homes from the late 1600s, it was hugely expensive. In the 1690s, the Countess of Argyll paid over £10 for 6 ounces of tea. That’s £26 per pound, at a time when her estate’s lawyer earned £20 a year.

Given the expense and mystique of the imported oriental leaf, tea was not kept in the kitchen stores but in the mistress’s closet in a locked canister or caddy. When tea was to be drunk, it would not be prepared in the kitchen, but in the room in which it was to be served. Servants would bring the required equipment to the room, and the lady or gentleman of the house would brew the tea and serve it to their guests or family.

Hence the need for our hot water urn; a servant would deliver the crucial supply of boiling water and pour it into an appropriate vessel, to be used as required.

See the real thing in the Geffrye Museum, in Information Bay 4.

For more on the history of tea in English homes, look out for our digital story, which will be available on the Geffrye Museum website from early May.

Mystery Object No. 4 - Something Shiny

Have you been missing our mystery object posts? If so then we have excellent news - we have a new mystery object this week!

Can you tell us what this object would have been used for?

(c) Geffrye Museum, London

It is made of silver-plated copper and dates from the eighteenth century.

Answer in the blog comments of via our Twitter feed, and we'll post the solution on Monday. Happy guessing!

Tales from the Deep

On both of our Stories of the World Family Days next week (Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th April), families can take part in our Tales from the Deep storytelling activity.

Tales from the Deep is based on the story of a shipwreck discovered by fishermen in 1998, off the Ca Mau peninsular in Vietnam. The wreck was of a Chinese ship known as a junk, which sank in about 1725, laden with cargo destined for the European market. There was great demand for Chinese porcelain in Europe at this time, especially to equip people to drink the newly fashionable tea.

The junk was carrying thousands of pieces of Chinese porcelain, probably ferrying them between Canton (Guangzhou) and the Dutch trading post of Batavia (now Jakarta). It is clear that much of this porcelain was destined for sale at European ports such as London or Amsterdam; some pieces are decorated with elements of traditional Dutch fishing villages, but executed in the Chinese style. As well as this intermingling of decorative influences, there were objects of European form, such as beer mugs.



Saucer, c.1725 (c) Geffrye Museum, London

Tea bowl, c.1725 (c) Geffrye Museum, London

The tea bowl and saucer pictured above were probably made in the city of Jingdezhen, China, which is famous for its porcelain production. Their decoration shows a scene in a garden with a pavilion and three figures, a man in military clothing walking with a woman, and a man in scholarly official robes emerging from behind the pavilion.

After 250 years on the seabed, much of this cargo has now been recovered. In fact, you can see some of it on display in the Geffrye’s 1745 parlour.

Even more excitingly, families taking part in our Tales of the Deep activity will be able to handle a tea bowl recovered from the wreck. Children can then make their own shadow puppets to retell the ship’s story.

Find more information about the tea bowl and saucer pictured in the Geffrye’s collections online here.

Fantastic Fans

Next week, at our second Stories of the World Family Day on Wednesday 20th April, children can join in with our ‘Fantastic Fans!’ activity.
 



Fan, c.1890-1950 (c) Geffrye Museum, London

‘Fantastic Fans!’ is based on the Japanese fan pictured above, on display in the Geffrye Museum’s 1890 drawing room. The 1890 room is decorated in the style of the Aesthetic Movement, which was strongly influenced by Japanese art and design.

These traditional Japanese round hand fans are known as ‘uchiwa’, and they have a very long history. They came originally from China, and were made from bamboo and ‘washi’ paper. They have had many uses: as far back as the Heian period (794-1185), fans were used as ceremonial items at the Imperial court, later they became common props in performing arts such as Japanese classical dancing, and in the tea ceremony. They were also a necessity amongst ordinary people for keeping cool in the summer, and for stoking cooking fires. They are still in use today, to fan charcoal on barbeques or to cool hot rice when making sushi, and also as cheap, practical promotional items, distributed in cities in the summer.
 

Tradition in Kyoto holds that uchiwa are properly used not to fan oneself, but to fan others, as a way of expressing respect and appreciation.
 

In our ‘Fantastic Fans!’ workshop, children can make an ‘uchiwa’ fan of their own design to take home with them. See here for the programme of events.
 

See the real thing in the 1890 room!
 

See here for more information from the Geffrye's collections online.

For more on Japanese homes, see the Geffrye Museum’s exhibition 'At Home in Japan - Beyond the Minimal House', running from 22 March to 29 August 2011.

Project update: in which we get to travel back in time

No mystery object this week, I'm afraid. They'll be back soon! Instead, we thought we thought we'd give you an update on some of the other things we're working on.

As well as writing this blog for you, we've been busy preparing some permanent resources which will eventually appear on the Geffrye's website.

The Geffrye is a museum of English homes, but not everything in its collection is English. We're putting together an interactive map of the world which will show you where objects in the Geffrye collection started their lives, so you can explore the world at home for yourself.

We've tried to do a little of this on the blog already, which is why we've been asking you where things are from and asking you to look for international objects in your own home.

This week, we've been finalising our designs for the map and collecting together some photographs of the objects. Early one morning the Geffrye's curators kindly let us into the galleries to take some of our own...

For a few brief minutes we got to pretend that we had travelled to English homes of the past! (With a digital camera, of course.)

Our permanent resources should be complete and on the website for you to enjoy in early May!

Remembering Your Travels

This week we're asking you to show us photos of international objects in your own home. If you're having trouble thinking of anything you have that fits your description, consider your souvenirs!

Souvenirs have been a way for people to remember things for a long time. Wherever you live, people who visit can probably find a souvenir to take home with them. You might buy one to remember something you did, somewhere you went, or something that happened, but the point of them is usually to remember.

Whether you buy them yourself or get given them as a gift after someone you know has been on holiday, souvenirs mean there are often many objects from many different countries in your home. I love to collect things when I visit new places, so I have quite a few souvenirs. Even things which weren't intended as souvenirs I love to think of as reminding me of the place or time I bought them, so they become just as meaningful.

We've explored the Geffrye's stores to show you some of the objects bought as souvenirs of travel that ended up in English homes.

This dish was originally sold as a souvenir in Malta, a country located just South of Italy and Sicily. It's made of real shells, with a small painting of the island at the centre.

(c) Geffrye Museum, London

It might not be to everyone's taste, but it's a good reminder of a summer's beach holiday and there are probably many places souvenirs just like this can still be bought.

Souvenirs have been around a lot longer than many people think. This gorgeous money box was probably made in Italy around 1860. It's decorated with some very pretty scenes of British sailing boats, including a steamer with flag flying at full mast, but it's inscribed 'Florence'.

(c) Geffrye Museum, London

It was made in Florence, Italy, as a souvenir, and was bought by someone who brought it back to their English home. Maybe they were an English person who liked the thought of their own country's boats being active in Italian trade, or maybe they just thought the images were pretty.

Here's an object you might think was a souvenir, but was actually made in England:

(c) Geffrye Museum, London

(c) Geffrye Museum, London

This folding mirror may look like it travelled from Asia but, as some of you might have learnt from our last mystery object, looks can be deceiving. The mirror was made in 1976, at a time when Japanese arts and styles were very popular in England.

For the middle-class English person, it might be considered very impressive to have something hanging on your wall which looked like it had travelled from far off places - it made the owner look a bit more important - and most people would never be able to tell. Souvenirs can be a way to show off as well as remember!

Speaking of looks being deceiving...

(c) Geffrye Museum, London

This is an earthenware oil lamp from the Mediterranean. You might be forgiven for thinking it's almost 2000 years old and was around during the Greek or Roman period! However, experts have looked at this lamp and discovered it's likely to be a modern 'pastiche' made only partly of ancient lamp pieces, designed to sell to tourists as a souvenir.

And lastly, a souvenir everyone is probably familiar with, the postcard:

(c) Geffrye Museum, London

I love looking at souvenir postcards when I go on holiday, and usually I try to send one back to friends or family at home. It seems whoever sent these 'Best Wishes from India' felt the same way.

But the thing I look for most when I'm visiting somewhere new is a souvenir that can be found in many tourist destinations, usually in the gift shops:

This is a small selection of my souvenir shotglass collection! These examples are all from a trip to Memphis, Tenessee, although as you can see there's one from neighbouring state Mississippi that snuck in there too. I love my shotglasses as I think they're a fun (and kind fo pretty) reminder of places I've visited and the things I've seen and done.

What kind of souvenirs do you have in your home? Do you always buy one when you go away, or do you ask people to bring them back for you? Do you collect a certain type of souvenir? Tell us about them in comments, or add a photo to our flickr group as part of our photo event!

Mystery Object No. 3 - the Solution

This week we asked you where this object was made:

Corner cupboard, 1720-1760 (c) Geffrye Museum, London

Lose ten points if you said Japan (sorry). Congratulations to those who answered with European countries!
 

Despite its oriental appearance, our mystery object was actually made in Europe sometime between 1720 and 1760. Experts can't tell exactly where because these sorts of objects were so popular throughout the continent.
 

Oriental lacquer objects were first imported into Europe in the late 1500s, along with spices, silks and porcelain. Such goods were only imported into Britain in large quantities after the formation of the East India Company in 1600.
 

As demand for oriental lacquer objects outstripped supply, European craftsmen began to experiment with their own materials to imitate the style, producing a technique known as ‘japanning’. This is a finish achieved by applying several layers of varnishes and glazes.
 

Attempts at japanning were first made in England in the early 1600s, but the boom in popularity of oriental and japanned objects started during the reign of Charles II (1660-1685). The style was applied to all sorts of things, from tea trays to coaches. At the height of its popularity, japanned ware was present in every middle-class home.
 

The scenes picked out in gold leaf and bronze paint on our cupboard are not an accurate imitation of the pictures on Asian lacquer, but a fanciful European version of them. The cupboard was originally blue, but the layers of varnish have discoloured over time. The original gold leaf picking out figures, foliage and decoration, however, is still largely intact.
 

Even though this object itself did not travel from Asia, it’s a good example of how techniques and practices can travel across the globe.

 

See the real thing in the Geffrye Museum’s 1745 parlour.

1745 parlour (c) Geffrye Museum, London

See here for more information from the Geffrye's collections online.

Mystery Object No. 3 - Something Oriental

It’s time for our third ‘mystery object’ from the Geffrye’s collection!
 

(c) Geffrye Museum, London



(c) Geffrye Museum, London



(c) Geffrye Museum, London

Can you take a guess where this eighteenth-century corner cupboard was made? 

It is made of wood (possibly pine), is 90 cm (around 3 feet) high, and would be mounted on the wall of a parlour.

Here’s a clue: we haven’t given away the answer!
 

Answer in the blog comments or via our Twitter feed.
 

Look here for the correct answer this Saturday.

Mystery Object No. 2 - the Solution

This week we asked you to guess what people in the 1700s would have used this object for:



Rushlight and candle holder, 1700-1800 (c) Geffrye Museum, London

Thankyou to everyone who guessed - those who went for anything along the lines of candle holder were closest, and 'space flute' was the furthest out!

It’s actually called a rushlight holder: the part which looks a bit like a pincer holds a strip of a plant called a ‘rush’ (shown in the picture) which had been dipped in fat (usually the drips from cooking meat) and was then lit like a candle wick.

This one can hold candles too, but rushlights were cheaper and easier to make. Most people in the 1700s would have had to use tallow candles, which were expensive, messy and didn’t smell very good. Rushlights were not very bright, but at least they didn’t make as much mess or smoke as candles.

Light from a rush would last about 20 minutes, but if you wanted a bit more you could light both ends. This meant that the rush wouldn’t last as long. This is where the saying ‘burning the candle at both ends’ comes from!

Rumour has it if you had a visitor you didn’t like very much, you could light both ends so the light would burn out sooner and they would have to leave – sneaky!

You can see this object on display in the Geffrye Museum of the Home, or find more information about it online.

Mystery Object No. 2 – Something Irish

It’s Wednesday again, which means it’s time for this week’s mystery object!

(c) Geffrye Museum, London

We can tell you that this metal object is from Ireland, but can you tell us what people in the 1700s would have used it for?

Here’s your clue: the use of this object is where a famous British saying comes from

Post your answers in the blog comments or via our Twitter feed and check whether you got it right in this Saturday’s blog post.

Mystery Object No. 1 - the Solution

The waiting is over! Thankyou to all of you who guessed, and apologies for driving one or two of you a little mad. We can now reveal the true identity of our mystery object: congratulations to those who guessed it was a tea cup!

(c) Geffrye Museum, London

One of the things we are currently in the process of doing is putting together a digital story on the history of tea drinking in English homes (available on the Geffrye Museum website from early May), so we will be looking at a lot of teacups in the next few weeks!

This one is part of a set manufactured by Royal Worcester in 1876, and is decorated with the ‘Variety’ pattern, which includes a scroll pattern, stylised flowers and a bamboo design.

The decoration is influenced by both Japanese and Middle Eastern designs, and is our first example of how styles and techniques from across the globe have appeared in English homes.

Mystery Object No. 1 – Something Square

We are proud to present our first ‘mystery object’ from the Geffrye’s collection.

In this mini-series, we shall be posting pictures of some of our favourite objects from the Geffrye – and asking if you can guess what they were used for, where they came from, or just simply what on earth they are.

We thought we’d start with an easy one:



(c) Geffrye Museum, London



Can you guess what this object might be?

Here’s a clue: you probably have a few of these in your home, but they might not look quite the same as this one.

Post your answers in the blog comments or via our Twitter feed.

Look for the answer in this Saturday’s blog post!