Historical information

One of the jobs of the housewife was to keep her stove-top looking clean and new, and a rich black colour. This was a source of pride amongst house-proud women, and also ensured a more efficient distribution of heat on their stove-tops for cooking. It was however one of the dirtiest jobs in the kitchen, requiring a lot of elbow-grease as well as a good polish paste or blacking ink.

Physical description

Two brown pottery blacking bottles, one with a light brown glaze and other is dark brown. Both have shaped wide necks with a lip at the edge for pouring. The contents were used to blacken a stove.