Beaker, drinking vessel

This pewter half-pint capacity beaker was made by Gerardin and Watson between around 1830 and 1837. It bears their three flower hallmarks and a ½ PINT stamp and has a turned spreading pedestal foot and turned rim. The body is engraved ‘Mount St Workhouse’ where it was used.

The Mount Street workhouse was originally built in 1725. It was enlarged in the 1780s, to provide work, food and accommodation for approximately 700 people, making it one of the largest workhouses in the country. It eventually closed in the early 1870s due to overcrowding, with paupers transferred to other workhouses. Beer, drunk in beaker's like this, would have been the standard drink provided to workhouse inmates in the early 19th century, being more nutritious and safer to drink than water which was often contaminated. Each inmate had their own beaker in which to drink their daily ration of beer.