Old copper tray

Please help for identify this item... Thanks

Dear Prasanga,

Well, what is it? Personally I really love it, its a beautiful piece of metal. I love how the drainer dishes have this beautiful tree shape in them, and I like the detailing around the edge of the dish. It has also got a lot of history and is closely linked with the colonial era.

Shape and Function

Your copper tray is in fact a meat platter and drainer. It would have been used to save the juices of whatever meat was put on the dish. The meat was put on the part with the small canals which drained the juices to the reservoir on the side. The drippings would then be put directly in a dripping server or would have been turned into a sauce first.

Composition

Your item doesnt appear a typical copper colour on your photo's. Are these photo's accurate? If the object in real life appears in the same colours as on the photo, it's unlikely pure copper. It may however be a silvered copper, or a tinned copper. Silvering adds value to the object. Tinning was done to prevent a copper dish from coming into direct contact with the food. Copper is a very reactive metal and can release harmful chemicals into the food while tainting it's taste.

I say tin or silver because the metal appears white where you cleaned it.*

Now withouth handling it, I cant tell you if the platter might not even be pure tin or pure silver. Both would weigh considerably more than a copper or brass platter of the same size. You could look for makers marks on the piece to tell you more about who made it and when.

*It also appears very scratched, if that is from cleaning it, please stop immediately, you're using too much abrasive.

History

Your meat platter shows the number 36 and motto "FIRM" of the 36th Herefordshire Regiment of Foot. This army unit was formed in 1701 and became part of the Worcestershire Regiment in 1881. They spent two extended periods of time in the British East Indies: the first time from 1783 to 1798, the second time from 1864 to 1875. It is very likely the dish has come from the first stay, on the second stay the regiment arrived in the north of India to later travel to Pakistan.

On the first stay in India the company took part in the second and third anglo-mysore wars. Moving on from Mysuru in 1792 they campaigned in Srirangapatna, in 1793 they were in Puducherry, then from 1794 to 1798 they were stationed in Tiruchirappalli. You can probably see why I believe your dish to have come from their first Indian stay, they came awfully close to Sri Lanka.

Nowadays it may seem weird that such relative luxuries would be brought on an army campaign but back in the day, the officers lived in style. The regiment would be gone for very long periods at a time and would settle on the places they were appointed for years or more. That meant large dining sets were brought along with furniture, weapons and uniforms.

How the dish left the regiment we do not know, if you would be really interested, it would maybe be possible to find the dish within the regiments archives on an inventary list. It is possible to consult the archives, I will give you the information later. For now let's assume it was either gifted, traded, replaced or stolen.

Value

I'm very sorry but I could not tell you that. It depends on the market in which you put the object and on the metals it is made from. It could be of some interest to military collectors, but they usually prefer weapons and other objects worn by the regiment.

Conclusion

summary

So, it is a meat platter, possibly silver (or silvered on copper), pewter (or tinned on copper) from the late 18th early 19th century. That is consistent with the design of the dish that shows the very popular design motifs that we now usually would group with the styles from the following regency period.

what to do next

Next up there's several things to do:

• Seek more information, starting with the sources I will state below. You want to find out the exact material, and you want to verify my information. If the dish is worth it to you, have a professional antiques valuer write a valuation. If it isn't, you could always ask a reputable antiques dealer for more help on the subject. In the mean time, keep looking your self.
• As soon as you're sure about the metal, continue cleaning it. Be very careful, this is an antique, don't use any old metal polish to clean it. Metal polishes can be very abrasive. Once you find out for sure which metal the dish is made from you can have a good look around for information on safe cleaning of antique metals on the internet or, again, if you have the budget, have it profesionally cleaned.
• Document it. Document your history with the item, when did you buy it, who did you inherit it from, what did you find out about it. Once you want to sell the item or give it to your children, such information becomes important to give the object it's story and value.

Sources

I mainly worked with my basic knowledge of antique dishes and metalware for identifying the shape of the dish and the possible metals it is made from. For all other information I looked to this page in particular:

http://www.worcestershireregiment.com/wr.php?main=inc/h_36th_Foot_history

And the whole website in general:

http://www.worcestershireregiment.com/

This is a very sound website. You will find the adress of the archives I named earlier, as well as detailed information on the various parts of the history of the regiment. Don't forget to look at their badges and uniform clasps, you can look for the different coats of arms and motto's.

I hope I have helped you identify this beautiful platter a little more.

Best of Luck,

Adriaan van der Klooster

The Netherlands