Hi!

I just was given an interesting looking tub / bucket. It is copper with wooden handles(w/ metal brackets) on either side. There is a spigot on bottom front. I am no artist but I drew a picture. What is this?????

 


Carol,

Nice picture. Your container is most certainly not a bucket; a bucket usually has one handle at the top connected to opposite sides of a plain vessel wall. More ornate, and larger tubs with drain functions are often used to hold and chill drinks at weddings and outdoor parties. Because yours is copper, it is probably of antiquity; because it is somewhat smaller than the average "beertrough" frequently used at parties, I assume yours was used for more intimate picnics, or perhaps as a basin to dispense the fruits of an inept cistern collection system. Who knows? When used as the former, the handles would facilitate moving the ice and beverage filled tub to different locations. Similarly, the spigot allows you to drain melt-water lest the whole array go topsy-turvy using other methods. Does this contraption have a lid?

Dan
TubAndPotClub.com

 

Back to the Correspondence Page