Kent Skillet Makers

RESEARCHES AND DISCOVERIES IN KENT KENT SKILLET MAKERS I bought from the effects of our late member, Mr V.J. Newbury (Arch. Cant., cii (1985), 290), a bell metal skillet or posnet, which throws a little more light on items which have been much neglected, namely the lesser-sized objects produced by the Kent bell founders who are listed by Stahlschmidt. 3 This skillet stands on three grooved legs with hoof-like terminals and has a plain handle (length 8.25 in.), which has a right-angled support where it meets the curved sides of the bowl (diameter at rim 6.1 in., height 3.6 in.). Curved sides preceded the straight sides of the early seventeenth century.4 Close inspection of this example shows near the handle junction a faint, raised inscription 'IW 1637' (?) As it was bought by Mr Newbury in central Kent, I thought it worthwhile to consult Stahlschmidt and was rewarded to learn that John Wilnar (who had a foundry at Borden and was buried there on 5th May, 1640) used for his inscriptions 'flat broad letters so slightly raised upon the surface of the bell as to be hardly perceptible to sight or touch.' I mentioned to our member Mrs. P. Winzar that I had acquired this skillet and she put me in contact with Mrs. J. Hutchinson of Charing who possesses a skillet of like shape, except for its double right-angled support to the handle (bowl 8½ in. in diameter at the rim, with a 5 in. depth of pan). The handle has the moulded inscription 'IOHN x PALMAR' with reversed 'N' (Fig. 1), which links it with the Maidstone Museum mortar. This latter has the inscription 'T.C. MAIER OF NEWNHAM 1621' and was probably made by John Palmar when he was in the Gloucester district prior to his coming to Canterbury. 5 Mrs. Hutchinson's skillet is more likely to have been made in Kent as her father 'bought it from the George Inn, Molash, between the wars - about 1934: It was the largest of a set of three. He paid 2s. 6d. for it and regretted not buying the other two.' L.R.A. GROVE 3 (a) J.C.L. Stahlschmidt, The Church Bells of Kent, 1887; (b) Arch. Cant., lxii (1958), 226, for a note on a Thomas Hatch mortar. 4 P. Hornsby, Guide to British Pewter, Copper and Brass, 1981, 128. 􀁴 Arch. Cant., lxxvi (1961), 200-1. Hornsby, op. cit., 106, has a photograph (Plate 64) which shows the skillet handle bearing the inscription 'THO PALMAR' (c. 1670). Thomas (d. 1671) apparently did not use his father's letter stamps on this example. 239 Fig I Rubtnng of John PalmM Inscription on .i Bell Metal Sl.,llct H,indlc (Scale I. I) C ;:;; ,... C < r ;e ;., V, z "' ,... 3