Voider; dish

Large pewter plate found in a well in the kitchen of Henry VIII’s palace of Nonsuch in Surrey. This dish, and three others like it, seems to have been thrown away in the well as it could no longer be used in the kitchen. It has a large hole melted in it caused by someone leaving it on a hot surface. It has also been used as a target for archery practice – there are square-shaped holes all over it made by the type of arrowhead known as a ‘bodkin bolt’ used to pierce armour. The high-speed penetration of the 3 inch bodkin head is shown by the ruptured and splayed metal seen on the under surface at each point of contact. There is a maker’s mark ‘W C’ with a crowned rose between, and eight curved tapering rays issuing beneath. This mark is thought to be that of William Curtis, Master of the Pewterers’ Company seven times between 1566 and 1586. This dish has a curved base and would have rocked slightly on a flat surface. It is therefore probably a ‘voider’ – a dish held in the hand of a servant and used to collect scraps from the table.