Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 1DL Tel: 01449 612229 www.eastanglianlife.org.uk

Objects(s): Mustard Spoon Object Number(s): STMEA:79.A.46.6 Researcher details: Richard Hall, Volunteer

Mustard Spoon A staple of many dining tables was a set of condiments. One of the popular additions to ‘liven’ up our food was mustard. So, this item in our collection would have been in regular use in the home. It is an ivory mustard spoon and is part of a collection of several items donated to the museum in the 1979.

The spoon itself is from carved ivory and is 11cm in length and 1.5cm wide at the bowl end. When in use it would have sat in pot of mustard, probably with a lid on it to stop the mustard from drying out too quickly. Such is the popularity of mustard in our psyche that we even build houses to look like pots of our favoured condiment!

Image: The Mustard Pot, Needham Market by Chris Holifield1 History and the culinary use of Mustard.

Wikipedia suggests that the use of mustard as a condiment probably began with experimentation by the Romans2. We consider mustard to be a simple paste made from crushed mustard seeds but in fact the Romans mixed the ground mustard seeds with ‘Must’ which is actually freshly crushed fruit, usually grapes, prior to fermentation. In this way they managed to produce a form of mustard, which was further flavoured with herbs for cooking.

1 Holifield C. The Mustard Pot, Needham Market [Internet]. 2015 [cited 6 July 2020]. Available from: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4478101 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ 2 Mustard (condiment) [Internet]. En.wikipedia.org. 2020 [cited 6 July 2020]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustard_(condiment) Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 1DL Tel: 01449 612229 www.eastanglianlife.org.uk

The first recorded use of mustard in England was in 1390. When King Richard II’s cooks recorded its use in a culinary work entitled “The Forme of Cury”. It was suggested that ground mustard seeds should be mixed with flour and cinnamon spice; moistened, rolled into ball and dried to be later used as a flavouring for foods. As mustard was mixed especially with other exotic herbs and spices, it is likely that for many years it was the preserve of the rich.

This form of mustard appears to have been the popular usage in England where the town of Tewksbury in Gloucestershire became famous for their mustard balls mixed with horseradish, which were sent all over the country, at one point even being mentioned in Shakespeare’s play, ‘Henry IV – Part 2’.

Ground mustard has been mixed with different spices and flavourings around the world and is still a popular choice for today’s chefs. East Anglian links with Mustard

As an area of prime agricultural land, East Anglia has had a long association with growing and milling mustard seed. A name synonymous with mustard in East Anglia is Colman’s of Norwich. Even today, more mustard is grown in East Anglia than any other area of the country.

The Colman’s Mustard company3 was established in 1814. Their business was run from a Mill at Stoke Holy Cross, near Norwich. Jeremiah Coleman, who founded the business, decided to blend brown and white mustard together to make his own unique mustard product.

The companies mustard products proved popular and by 1865, they had moved production to larger factory at Carrow Road in Norwich. They introduced a distinctive ‘Bulls Head’ logo for their products; cleverly associating their business with both the strength of the product and the farming community where they were based.

Image: Colemans Bulls Head Logo by Panhard.4

3 Colman's [Internet]. En.wikipedia.org. 2020 [cited 6 July 2020]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colman%27s 4 Buckinghamshire Railway Centre [Internet]. 2020 [cited 6 July 2020]. Available from: By Panhard - Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6806478 Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 1DL Tel: 01449 612229 www.eastanglianlife.org.uk

Like several large employers of the 19th Century, Coleman’s philanthropy was well known in Norwich. During the 19th Century they pioneered workplace welfare by employing a Nurse to care for their employees and a school to educate local children.

In 1938, Coleman’s merged with Reckitt and Sons and became Reckitt and Coleman, later becoming part of the Unilever group. By 2018, it was formally announced that Coleman’s would cease production in Norwich, transferring their production to factories in Burton on Trent and Germany. Powell5, writing in the Eastern Daily Press had spoken to Sir Timothy Coleman, the great grandson of the company’s founder Jeremiah Coleman, who described the news as “very sad”.

Over the years, mustard has become so important that many everyday phrases refer to it such as: “Cut the Mustard” or “As keen as mustard”. Where such phrases originate from is shrouded in history but nevertheless we still use them! Mustard Spoons

The mustard spoon has a distinctive ‘scoop’ shaped bowl, which sets it apart from all other spoons. It is designed this way to prevent the mustard from slipping out of the bowl before it reaches your plate. Many commentators suggest the first mustard spoons, coincided with mustard being used as a condiment, rather than a food flavouring which would date early examples to the 18th Century.

They were made from all of the same metals as for everyday cutlery. However, our spoon is made from ivory, which comes from the tusks of elephants, but can also be made from animals’ teeth. Ivory has been used throughout history for producing carved works of art as well as products for medical and domestic use. Its physical properties make it a really flexible material for sawing, turning, carving and polishing.

Spoons have been used since medieval times in England where they were made from a variety of materials, either carved from wood, made in pewter, plated brass, sterling silver and more recently stainless steel. Campbell6 tells us that the use of ivory in cutlery, dates to the 16th Century where ivory was used to make handles for knives. Spoons made from ivory generally date from the 19th Century. Ivory was less practical for cutlery, unless purely decorative, and therefore reserved for less frequently used items such as our mustard spoon.

At this time, ivory was already recognised as being a commodity in danger of extinction. It therefore began to be replaced with plastics for items such as billiard balls and piano keys7. I suspect this led to rising prices for ivory, which meant that if you owned even a small item of ivory such as a mustard spoon, you might have been considered as being quite posh!

5 Powell L. Norwich Colman’s Mustard factory to close with production moving out of Norfolk. Eastern Daily Press [Internet]. 2018 [cited 6 July 2020]; Available from: https://www.edp24.co.uk/business/norwich- colmans-mustard-factory-close-2019-1-5342902 6 Campbell G. The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts. 1st ed. Oxford University Press; 2006. 7 Billiard ball [Internet]. En.wikipedia.org. 2020 [cited 6 July 2020]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billiard_ball Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 1DL Tel: 01449 612229 www.eastanglianlife.org.uk

The Ivory Trade

There are many ethical considerations in using animal products for human consumption. Ivory, as a product made from just part of an animal, is no exception. The Victorians realised ivory was a finite resource, but they still didn’t really consider the ethical arguments of killing animals for such a small part of their bodies.

While people were still willing to buy ivory; the killing of animals to produce it continued, both legitimately and through illegal poaching. Expensive ivory was becoming a lucrative market. Such was the extent of the killing that there was a very real danger that elephants might become extinct.

Governments were quick to realise that the public mood had changed and that the availability of alternatives, meant that that continuing to trade ivory was a senseless waste. Gradually, the sale of ivory and products manufactured with it, have been banned. Jones8 tells us that in Britain, supporters of an ivory ban have included His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge. Jones though, makes a passionate case for not criminalising the use of ivory in works of art.

Nevertheless, the UK Government enacted the Ivory Bill as ‘The Ivory Act 2018’, which “introduces a total ban on dealing in items containing elephant ivory, regardless of their age, within the UK, as well as export from or import to the UK9.”

Whatever your views may be on the use of ivory, our mustard spoon recalls a period in our history when ivory was celebrated in both works of art and everyday household items.

8 Jones J. Ivory tells the history of the world – it must never be banned. The Guardian [Internet]. 2017 [cited 6 July 2020];. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2017/feb/16/uk- ivory-art-ban-prince-william 9 World-leading UK Ivory Bill becomes law [Internet]. GOV.UK. 2020 [cited 15 July 2020]. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/world-leading-uk-ivory-bill-becomes-law--2