Here’s a properly enigmatic little object which is both very much a “product of its time” and yet also has a heritage dating back hundreds of years, if not farther. It’s a wine-taster, or more properly a tastevin, and its time – specifically – was the mid 1760’s when it was crafted by the Bow porcelain works to the east of London. There is discourse and conjecture aplenty on our website amongst the proper experts about its exact provenance, and the reasons for such doubts as are cogitated upon with due diligence, but – as ever – I’m more interested in the broader, social history of the thing – so, onwards down that slippery slope we must go…
The most readily accepted origin for items of this nature is generally taken to be as a tool for Burgundian winemakers back in the late medieval period, when the product of the region’s viniculture was tantamount to a currency, such was its popularity across Europe, being exported far and wide via the River Rhine. It became entirely synonymous with the perpetually vacillant kingdom (or province, or duchy or state – whatever its status may have been at any given point in time). Suffice to say that great and significant store was set by the quality of the wine, and its charge was placed into the hands of respected winemakers, who would – quite literally – make the maintenance of exacting standards their life’s work. A silver tastevin was often a christening gift, presented to sons born into a family who curated this sage guardianship; the surname Tastevin still persists in the region, testament to the importance of those who bore the mantle of ‘wine-taster’.
So, the small vessels were part of French culture long before the boorish Brits decided to appropriate sundry artefacts of a similar nature and incorporate them into vast porcelain dinner services, with scant regard to their correct usage having been only dimly aware of their existence. Witness also the fate of pots aux jus, redefined as custard cups, along with ‘marronnieres aux oziers’ and ‘boutelliers” which went the same way. The Bow, Derby, Worcester and Caughley porcelain manufactories were all making ‘wine tasters’ by the mid 18th century – though what they were actually used for remains something of a mystery. Wine-tasting as a trade in the UK was definitely a ‘thing’ at this point in time, not to the extent of the grand, high wizardry of Burgundian oenophiliac excellence, but there were state-sponsored positions of a similar nature related to revenue and excise. Curiously, though, the holders of such posts were referred to – somewhat deferentially – in Italianate terms, as either ‘assaggiatori di vino’ or ‘assennatezzate’ (wine tasters, or assayers of taste) which seems to be an almost deliberate – and typically English – rejection of the ‘proper’ French provenance of the task. The fully Anglicised name for the job was a ‘wine conner’, which is simply an abbreviation of connoisseur. So, it will be evident that there is quite a bit of contemporary writing about the work of English wine tasters, which I have scoured dutifully, whilst remaining entirely unable to find any mention whatsoever of the use of any sort of specialised wine-tasting bowl, and the way that the things might have been employed seems to have become rather vague and indistinct. They are sometimes described as being intended for measuring tea, and they are very reminiscent of some modern-day kitchen measuring utensils at first glance, so it’s easy to see why this might be given as a purpose. Indeed, if you were a Georgian gentleman who had recently acquired a grand dinner service, complete with small, shallow dishes with tiny handles, this – I have no doubt – would have seemed to be an entirely sensible purpose for the otherwise pointless accoutrements. However, it does seem that a degree of sophistication did filter into the deepest recesses of English ignorance during the Regency period, as by the 19th century there are specifically purposed wine-tasters to be found, although the majority of these later models are made of silver, or occasionally glass.
To return to the porcelain models of the mid 18th century for a moment, there is another element of misdirection – away from their French origins – in that there are several instances where the ‘inspiration’ behind their production is said to be original and properly ancient Oriental vessels of a similar nature which are generally accepted to have been sake bowls, complete with their little handles. To be fair, there is a long history of wine in the Far East, be it derived from grapes or rice, but the Worcester variant ‘wine tasters’ which embrace such provenance have a shape which seems to be far more redolent of tea-drinking vessels, part of that other mystical Eastern ceremony, every bit as stylised as liturgical Burgundian wine husbandry.
So, we’re really following quite a well-worn path to trace the lineage of our curious little bowl, and others like it. Derived as something of an homage to 15th and 16 century silver vessels of some renown, they were replicated in 17th century France as elements of grand porcelain dining services, very possibly retaining their original purpose, at least in part. When such services were exported to and later produced in England, the same bowls were retained as part of the complete inventory, although having been repurposed to suit more pressing needs with their genuine utility being lost in translation. The fact that they are now – once again – known as wine-tasters is a case of modern revisionism, with the revival of their original function being acknowledged in spite of the fact that, when they were made, they did not have this same express purpose. The whole tale is all rather taxing, to be fair – I may now go and taste some wine, purely for research purposes, of course (and from a large glass)…
