Warner Bronze Cooking Pot

(5.5"x5"x11.5")

An 18th-century one pint English cooking pot on short legs, made of bronze. Bronze is crafted through the smelting of two metallic elements. Copper is the main ingredient, with the remaining aspects consisting of either tin or arsenic. The Bronze Age began at different times for different societies, with the first cultures who smelted the metal successfully being those of West Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean Coast, around 3300–1200 BCE. Bronze was quickly regarded as an attractive cooking technology, due to the metal’s heat conduction abilities. This Warner bronze cooking pot features prominent raised lettering on its handle, which reads “Warner 1P.” The pot was produced by John Warner & Sons, a metalworks and bell foundry established in 1739. John Warner & Sons was active until 1949, and is most notable for its production of large bells, including the clock chimes for the British Houses of Parliament, and the four smaller quarter bells included in Big Ben. This pot was produced by John and Tomson Warner (dates unknown), the company founder’s sons, who started an additional metal working business, known as Three Bells and A Star, located in Cripplegate, London. A classic piece of cooking technology with a unique history, the Warner bronze cooking pot would be a fantastic addition to the collection of any cookware history enthusiast. 

At this time in England, royal Navy officer George Anson (1697–1762) returned to Great Britain from a four year circumnavigation of the globe in 1744. The voyage was completed by a squadron of eight ships, originally on a mission to disrupt the Pacific Ocean possession of the Spanish Empire during the War of Jenkins’ Ear (1739–1748). The voyage was notable for its horrific losses from disease, with only 188 of the original 1,854 men surviving. An account of the voyage was published in 1748 to great commercial success.