Awfully cleaver, those pre-electricity blokes. What greater convenience could there be tha...

Awfully cleaver, those pre-electricity blokes. What greater convenience could there be than a device that provided much needed light in the dark night and the opportunity to warm porridge for baby or some after-hours sustenance for an adult?

In the Wedgwood version, a tall cylinder of  glazed undecorated creamware--closed at the bottom with multiple piercings on one side--served as the base of this food warmer.   Openings in the cylinder allowed insertion of a small oil lamp or godet, allowed air circulation, and provided an attractive pattern of illumination. The open top in this example supports a lidded porringer complete with spout for pouring. Wide flaring handles allowed the entire apparatus to be carried without fingers coming too close to the heat from the lamp.

Ceramic food warmers typically fall under the French term veilleuse, defined as a "night l...

Ceramic food warmers typically fall under the French term veilleuse, defined as a "night lamp to provide illumination and conserve hot liquids." The presentation of such devices and their component parts in the 1817 catalogue pages brings to mind a modern household appliance with a wide range of optional accessories. When used with a fitted teapot, the warmer was known as a theiere; with a porringer it became a nursery lamp (Reilly. Wedgwood, Vol. I, pp.208, 338).

Curiously, the Wedgwood 1817 catalogue illustrations were executed by William Blake -- simple line drawings, no marginal lambs or tygers. Blake supplemented his meager income from poetry with book illustration. Impressive to think of a piece in one's collection having had its portrait drawn by one of England' great masters.

Wedgwood continued to produce these pieces into the nineteenth century, at times adding decoration to the functional purity of its creamware.