The use of mustard for culinary purposes goes back into antiquity, but it was a Mrs Clements who started mustard-making on a truly commercial scale in about 1720. She had the idea of producing a fine mustard flour which she made at 73 Saddler Street, Durham. Her method was simply to grind the seed in a mill and then to subject it to the various processes used in flour-making. Mrs Clements, who took good care to keep her secret to herself, met with instant success. George I liked it and the court followed him, establishing the preference for paste mustard which still exists today. Mrs Clements not only supplied outlets in London, travelling there twice yearly, but also the more important towns throughout England. Since she travelled from Durham, the fine new mustard flour became known as Durham Mustard.

Antique Collector MagazineBut what of a silver pot in which to place it? These came into being following her discovery and had become established by the middle of the century. Early examples were drum-shaped or cylindrical, and sometimes oval or octagonal with flat, hinged lids in which a groove was left at the side for the insertion of a ladle-shaped spoon. From the early 1760s silversmiths listed tankards with hinged lids as mustard tankards, although they had been in use earlier. They were made from a sheet of silver, joined by a soldered seam beneath the handle. Lids were raised by a thumbpiece which was decoratively cast and chased. Handles were scroll or S-shaped. Moulding would usually strengthen the rim and base of the pot. Pierced examples with blue-glass liners were fashionable, being hand-pierced originally and pierced by the fly-press at a later date. The vase-shaped pot was in vogue during the last 30 years or so of the eighteenth century, as was the elliptical shape. At the end of the century, straight-sided oval pots appeared, decorated as the other forms, with beading, engraving and bright-cutting. Also making their appearance at this time were rectangular and barrel-shaped pots.

The Regency era saw the emergence of matching sets of domestic silver, and an assortment of matching salt and mustard pots now began to pour forth from manufacturing silversmiths. It was natural, then, that the cruet, with its silver or silver-mounted containers grouped together, grew in popularity. By the second and third decades of the nineteenth century, the cylindrical mustard pot was altogether heavier with thicker cast S-shaped handles, incorporating more elaborate mouldings around the rim and base. Various new shapes appeared including a compressed circular form chased with naturalistic patterns and pear-shaped pots. Hexagonal or octagonal pots were pierced or engraved.

In the early years of Queen Victoria’s reign designs became most fanciful and included the bizarre, like the pot with the handle incorporating a monkey with a look of horror on its face and its tongue lolling out. Was this a device to let us know that the stuff was hot? Animal shapes and novelties abounded, from plump porkers to kittens; sometimes demure, sometimes grotesque. Among the novelties was a busby, made in 1908, crested and engraved with the motto ‘I am ready’, its accompanying mustard spoon having a cockade handle. Another was a riding boot with a whip-handle spoon. Among Art Nouveau pieces was one designed by C. R. Ashbee and made by the Guild of Handicraft at the turn of the century. This elegant little piece with its simple, flowing lines, tapering in towards the top, and pierced above the waist, has a slightly-domed overlapping cover, its finial set with a semi-precious stone.

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Ancient Mustard pots