Pickle Castor with Tongs
This beautiful pickle castor with matching silver-plated tongs or pickle fork can be found in the Pastor’s House at Gammelgården Museum.
The dining tables of some of those in the late-1800s had beautiful serving pieces in ornate styles and patterns. The pickle castor was a common table accessory during this time that showed how practical function was combined with a beautiful form.
The castors were used to serve pickles and other pickled vegetables and fruits. If you had a pickle castor (or two) on your table, it meant that you were wealthy. Not only did pickle castors convey status, they also showed off the power to have household kitchen staff who were responsible for preparing and preserving the jar’s contents, and then using it to display the fruits of their labor.
By 1890, pickle castors were popular, but about a decade later, they fell out of fashion until collectors renewed their interest in Victorian art glass in the mid-1980s through the 1990s.
