... you can get them with hand painted ships on the sides, sailors used to bring them back full spices from far away places, they used to just put a cork in the open end to stop the spice from falling out ...
Ray, this is an interesting theory, and not one I have heard before. Do you have a source for it? I had always assumed that open-ended examples were for filling with ice, but I cannot cite an authoritative source for that opinion. It just illustrates how easy it is to make assumptions. They could have been both, of course, gifts filled full of spice, intended to be later used with ice.
I had always understood that these rolling pins are British or English, and date back as far as the early 19th century, being frequently and rather loosely classified as "friggers". Large numbers were certainly made in Sunderland, as many survive decorated with the bridge, and can be dated to a certain extent by the changes to the bridge. They were also decorated with the Tyne Bridge at Newcastle, usually with a little train on the top shelf, but no puffs of smoke, which was a later artistic device. So it is reasonable to assume that they were also made on Tyneside.
David's example is a beauty and must be quite early.
Bernard C.
Topic: Nailsea? (Read 4833 times)
