Sometimes What Was Once Old - Never Gets Old

The understanding of normal - daily day-to-day life can change as the years and generations pass. The way one generation may have gone about a certain household chore may be completely different today. The ice box revolutionized the way perishables were stored in the earliest years of the twentieth-century. The electric and gas stove - and the microwave have all revolutionized the modern kitchen of the twentieth-century. The society we all know today lives at a much faster pace - with a constant demand that lives for the moment. The colonial kitchen may be comparable to the nineteenth-century kitchen, but the modern twenty-first-century kitchen has been transformed with technology, better stoves, indoor grilles, microwaves, freezers and refrigerators. It's all about efficiency today and accomplishing a maximum measure in a minimum amount.

Most households no longer purchase the menu of the nightly dinner each day at the local marketplace - instead, it's preheated, thawed or quickly put together. Two-hundreds years ago, the nightly meal was an all-day process. This idea still serves true in some European and global cultures today, but the nightly ritual of preparing a dinner in colonial America has transformed into a small part of the modern household's daily schedule. Two-hundred years ago - it may have been a celebration that the whole day culminated around - while today, it's more of an end of the day meal that is more out of necessity than a family gathering.

The automobiles of the 1950s are no way near comparable to the hybrid cars of today. The horse-drawn carriages of many years past - could not sustain the desire for speed and regular long-distance travel of today's daily demand. The carriage was more about traveling through a scenic country side in style, while the automobile gets us to a destination as fast as humanly possible.

However, it's interesting to see how some ideas never change. What was once old - never actually got old and somehow has managed to remain relevant and new for hundreds or even thousands of years - have a look at this one simple example.

The redware milk pan or deep dish dates all the way back to ancient times, but it is still in use today in some settings. The form or style has differed very little in its use from country to county, civilization to civilization and period to period. Compare the examples below - there has been virtually no change.

Greek Redware Deep Dish or Milk Pan

1st Century, BC

Hellenistic to Early Roman Period

Photo Courtesy: Harvard University Art Museums - Cambridge, Ma 

Colonial Redware Deep Dish or Milk Pan

Mid 18th Century

Massachusetts or New Hampshire Potter

Photo Courtesy: Private New Hampshire Collection

Federal Period Redware Deep Dish or Milk Pan

Early 19th Century

Likely a Portsmouth NH Potter

Yellowware Deep Dish or Milk Pan

Early 20th Century

Possibly Made in Sterling, Ma

Photo Courtesy: Frank Kaminski Auctions - Beverly, Ma

There may not be many posts next week as I begin work on a group of upcoming projects. We'll see, but I will promise - there will be much more to report on soon enough.