Monteiths, punch bowls and punch ladles

The monteith, which looks like a punch bowl with an ornate rim arid lifting handles, fir whist appeared some 20 years after the Restoration but became more general during the later years of the seventeenth century and earlier years of the eighteenth. Monteiths are comparatively rare pieces, and therefore fetch high prices. Their scalloped and notched rims were generally removable. The monteith was filld with cold water, then glasses were hung by their foot upon the notchese, and thus allowed to cool in the water. When the monteith was not being used in l filled it punch. (more…)