A to Z Anthology

As the Society no longer produces newsletters, we will post occasional items of interest here.
Topics will be chosen at random.
Your contributions are welcome.

U is for Used

We asked under "J is for Jelly" if anyone uses their Maling. We're pleased to hear that you do.

A correspondent writes: "We've had this item in the family for maybe 30 years, it's used pretty much weekly and never paid much attention until I stumbled across your web site and it sparked my interest. I wondered if you could tell me anything about it regarding pattern and age. I can't figure out from the date marks if it's 1930s or 1880s maybe, and wondered if you could help from the photos attached".

We have warned elsewhere of how easy it is to misread a painted pattern number. Now we turn to impressed numbers, which are often dates in MM.YY form.

The insert shows a number which could be 2.82 or 2.32. A 1930s catalogue reveals this to be the "Leafy" pattern, which doesn't date back to Victorian times. But it was a good question from someone who had taken the time to do their research. (We like people who are prepared to help themselves.)

Technically, it's an ashet - an obscure northern term for a meat plate.

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