Tripod cauldron

This is a cast copper-alloy cauldron with three feet and two angular lug handles. Cauldrons were used for cooking over an open fire, either sitting directly on the embers or hanging above the fire. Most households would have had one or more metal cooking vessels, unless they were very poor. Such vessels were quite valuable and are often listed in wills and household inventories. They would have been handed down through generations of a family and repaired when damaged to keep them as long as possible. Cauldrons were made by being cast in a two-piece mould. This means that they often have a line running down from the rim to the base showing where the two halves of the mould were joined during the casting process. The feet were made in the same casting as the body of the vessel.