Containers for water and beer have been around for thousands of years but what of silver vessels for serving at the table?
It might surprise most people that in wealthy society in England throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth century and even well into the twentieth century water was not really served at the table unlike today where it would be almost unthinkable. The major reason for this was the impurity of the water at the time so when for example large silver jugs of the eighteenth and nineteenth century are encountered, they should really be described as beer jugs as this would have been what they contained.
Often the beer was not much more than brewed water sometimes around 1 percent ABV- rather than the average 4 percent today. When one encounters jugs with wooden handles, silver handles with ivory spacers or jugs with wicker handles one can be confident that their original purpose was for warm liquid, for example mulled wine.
Apart from purity concerns there would have been a somewhat lowly status attributed to serving water at the table. Whilst the English were not keen on serving water it would have been far more commonly served from silver jugs in polite American society (true water jugs are far more common in America).
The reality of course whether it was originally for beer or water matters little as a large silver jug for water ,beer or even wine, looks gorgeous on a table.
At William Walter Antiques we have a fine selection of large silver jugs from the eighteenth century by makers such as William Grundy right up to modern times with England and America both represented!
