November 2008
Longleat House Releases Answers To… "What is it for?"
 |
One of the mystery objects on display at Longleat |
 |
|
Would you know a wick trimmer when you saw one, or would you be tempted to use it to trim your moustache? Would you call an ice spade by its name, or try to serve lettuce with it?
Thousands of visitors to Longleat House have been grappling with such questions over the last few months as they tackled this year’s competition, a display case full of objects from the silver, furniture and ceramics collections of Longleat House, selected by the Longleat Curator of Historic Collections to puzzle and, sometimes, baffle visitors.
Thirty-eight different items for desk, dining table, kitchen, laundry, muniment room and hunting field, most not normally on display, had Longleat House visitors striving to identify the use for which they were originally designed.
“Many competitors evidently spent lots of time on this competition and many gave insightful and inventive answers - but no-one got all the answers right’’ reported Dr Kate Harris, Longleat Curator of Historic Collections. “After all,”
she readily admitted, “a number of the objects are now obsolete and many belong to a long-gone, very elaborate way of life, now unfamiliar to most people. Those who won Longleat Passport Tickets for next year in one of the monthly draws of completed (or fairly complete) competition entry forms, are to be congratulated - they deserve them.”
The vast copper turbot kettle, mirroring the shape of the mighty flat fish it was designed to cook, got identified quite frequently as a baby bath or a dog bath.
The Aquarius, part of a wash set, prompted well over forty quite different explanations – including small dog carrier, coal scuttle for a lady’s bedroom and porcelain handbag.
The two copper heads to possers for agitating washing in the Longleat laundry and in use long after the invention of the washing machine, were often identified as part of a still.
Quite a lot of people, however, seemed to know a quaich when they saw it (a shallow two-handled cup for whisky – pronounced ‘quake’) but, no-one identified the bleeding bowl though blood letting, the withdrawing of blood from the patient with the intention of curing illness and disease, has a very long history. Practiced from antiquity right down to the late 19th century, it was usually harmful to the patient.
The waiting is now over, as the answers have now been posted on the Longleat website. “I doubt they can ever be definitive but, at least, they will put people out of their misery,” said Dr Kate Harris.
The ‘What is it for?’ display will be on show to the end of this year, so visitors to Longleat House still have a chance to test their knowledge and ingenuity by looking at the competition items – but, rest assured, they will also be able to have a look at the answers and can find out immediately ‘what it was for’!
To find out more about the competition and the items on display click here.
|
 |
BBC
Animal Park
