Toddy warmer 1720 - 1721

Curator: It strikes me as being somehow utilitarian yet elegant; quite the paradox. Editor: We're looking at a "Toddy Warmer" crafted between 1720 and 1721, now held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's an object of decorative art fashioned from silver, featuring a turned wood handle. Curator: Ah, yes, "Toddy Warmer"—already the name conjures images of conviviality, perhaps gatherings of gentlemen discussing politics or literature by the hearthside. Editor: Indeed. This object speaks of ritual, of comfort. The silver suggests prosperity, but it is really a statement of control. Hot toddies, after all, were very fashionable for a burgeoning merchant class trying to emulate the gentry and nobility in manners and health practices. They used these objects to reinforce ideas around social identity and the status that went along with consuming specific foods, at particular temperatures, from a material that communicated affluence. Curator: Silver carries considerable symbolic weight, even outside its material value. Reflectivity is so key. Throughout history, it's connected to purity, to the moon, to reflective self-awareness. A lot of cultures across the world connect it to the feminine too, but then you look at how the consumption and the economics were so heavily dominated by males, and one must acknowledge the implicit structures of power in everyday use. The curved wooden handle juxtaposes quite well with the cylindrical container, so simple and spare. The slight flare towards the top, that band near the base – a conscious baroque detail. Editor: Agreed. Silver's been long valued for its antimicrobial properties as well – linking luxury to supposed good health, an ideology which continues even today. You can definitely sense its use as an everyday tool meant to perform rituals of domesticity that carried particular gendered associations. It also looks remarkably modern, doesn't it? Deceptively clean and unadorned, you might even miss it. Curator: Exactly! In the humblest objects reside the most complex cultural narratives. Editor: A reminder, perhaps, that luxury isn't just about opulence; it can be subtly woven into our routines, speaking volumes about societal structures and the construction of identity.