Mystery Item

So the new mystery item is up. It can been seen below and on Twitter. Get guessing and good luck!

Education at the Museum

Mystery Item No 2

Well done to all the people who correctly guessed that this month’s mystery item was in fact... sugar cutters. 
 

Now a day’s sugar comes in various forms, granulated, powder in packets etc, but it wasn't always that simple. Sugar used to be made into conical loaves which were produced by pouring liquid sugar into molds. (1) The desired amount of sugar would then be cut off using a pair of sugar cutters like our mystery item or this set here

 

Image from http://www.bbc.co.uk/ (2)

The importance of sugar cutters was talked about in Miss Leslie’s Lady’s House-Book in 1850.

A pair of sugar-nippers are indispensable, for breaking small the loaf-sugar, after it has been cracked with a stout knife and a mallet or hammer. It should then be kept in a closely covered tin or wooden box, There should be a box also for brown sugar. (3)

(1) Object Lessons, 'Suggar Cutters', 2012. [Online] Available from: www.objectlessons.org/houses-and-homes-tudors/sugar-scissors--sugar-cone-medieval-victorian/s58/a300/. (Accessed 19/03/2012).

(2) BBC, 'Sugar Cutters- A History of the World’, 2012. [Online] Available from: www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/3KrYjJGHRzGsidNnCgK97g. (Accessed 19/03/2012). 
(3) Old and Interesting, ‘Sugar Nippers’, 2012. [Online] Available from: www.oldandinteresting.com/sugar-nippers.aspx. (Accessed 19/03/2012).

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