Charcoal brazier
Category
Metalwork
Date
1862
Materials
Brass
Measurements
510 x 710 mm; 650 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
Spain
Order this imageCollection
Cotehele, Cornwall
NT 348022
Caption
Some visitors from Spain informed us: ‘The Spanish still use these braziers. They sit with it under the table, which is covered with a big cloth, and the diners sit around it and pull the cloth over their laps to keep warm. Spain is freezing cold in the winter – temperatures dropped to -11˚C in 2004, in the south!’ (1/8/2010). Na’amat Little visited on 27/6/15. She remembers that her Lebanese grandmother had a charcoal brazier, which, in essence, was a basic metal box adapted for purpose. Only the wealthy could afford decorative burners fashioned from brass such as the one at Cotehele. Na’amat told us that that such objects were (and still are) widely used in the Arab world. Charcoal burning produces a lot of smoke, so, in terms of use, the burners tend to be lit out of doors, and, when the embers are red hot, they are carried inside to provide heat. Cotehele’s brazier was ‘collected’ by William 4th Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, and was probably never used. The design is thought to be of Moorish influence – relating to the medieval Muslim communities of northern Africa and southern Spain.
Summary
Charcoal brazier, described in C.L. Eastlake - 'Hints on Household Taste', 1868, page 146; 'Charcoal brazier, brass, A nineteenth century copy of an earlier design. Purchased by Lord Edgcumbe at the International Exhibition of 1862, of modern Spanish work'.
Provenance
Purchased by William, 4th Earl of Mount Edgcumbe at the International Exhibition held in London in 1862.