Trencher mat box base, posy mat box base, roundel box base

Trencher mat box base. The use to which these mats were put, whether in the serving of fruits and sweetmeats or as source or entertainment for guests, is uncertain. In most cases the trenchers were adorned with mottoes, proverbs, epigrams, Biblical and classical quotations, or bits of English verse. In his Arte of English Poesie (London, 1589: PML6515, p 47) George Puttenham observed that: 'There be also other like Epigrammes that were sent usually for new yeares giftes or to be Printed or put upon their banketting dishes of suger plate...they were called Nenia or apophoreta and neuer contained aboe one verse, or two at the most, but the shorter the better; we call them Posies, and do paint them now a dyaes upon the backe sides of our fruite trenchres of wood'. In many cases the same verses are found on different sets of trenchers, which points to a common origin. They were evidently popular and it is probable that they were made in some speciality shop and were manufactured in large numbers.