Locomotive shaped coffee pot
- Made:
- 1840s in Cheltenham
Coffee pot, silver plated, Great Western Railway, in the shape of the locomotive "Victoria", ex Queen's Hotel, Swindon Station, by Martin, Baskett and Martin, Cheltenham.
Silver plated locomotive coffee urn loosely based on Great Western Railway Firefly 2-2-2 class. Nameplate on the side of the locomotive reads Victoria, accounting for its royal embellishments.
Due to an arrangement with the refreshment room proprietors at Swindon, every train stopped for ten minutes to allow passengers time to grab a coffee. Taking pride of place on the refreshment room counter was this grand coffee pot.
Mother of engineer Daniel Gooch remarks in a letter to her son around 1842, ‘the silver engine for the coffee pot, amused me greatly’ and Queen Victoria remarks in her diary on 29 September 1849 that they ‘stopped on Swindon, a fine station, where we got out and lunched’. Isambard K. Brunel, on the other hand, was dismissive of Swindon Refreshment rooms and is alleged to have said the coffee tasted of bad roasted corn!
Details
- Category:
- Miscellanea & Curiosities
- Object Number:
- 1999-8243
- Materials:
- silver plated
- Measurements:
-
overall: 570 mm x 275 mm x 685 mm,
- type:
- coffee-pot
- credit:
- British Rail, Clapham
