Ramekin is thought to come from a Dutch word for "toast" or the German for "little cream."




Name

Ramekin

Variant

Ramequin, Ramekin dish.

Pronounced

(ramə kin)[RAM-ih-kihn]ræməkin

Function

English Noun

Plural

Ramekins

Hypernym

A type of dish

Purpose

Cooking

Etymology

French Ramequin from Low German ramken, diminutive of cream, circa 1706. middle Dutch rammeken (cheese dish) dialect variant of rom (cream), similar to old English ream and German rahm. Ancient French cookbooks refer to ramekins as being garnished fried bread.


Meaning

1. A food mixture, (casserole) specifically a preparation of cheese, especially with breadcrumbs and/or eggs or unsweetened pastry baked on a mould or shell.

2. With a typical volume of 50-250 ml (2-8 oz), it is a small fireproof glass or earthenware individual dish similar in size and shape to a cup, or mould used for cooking or baking and serving sweet or savoury foods.

3. Formerly the name given to toasted cheese; now tarts filled with cream cheese.

4. A young child usually between the ages of 3 months and 11 years exhibiting a compulsion to force or "ram" their head into various objects and structures.

These days, a ramekin is generally regarded as a small single serve heatproof serving bowl used in the preparation or serving of various food dishes, designed to be put into hot ovens and to withstand high temperatures. They were originally made of ceramics but have also been made of glass or porcelain, commonly in a round shape with an angled exterior ridged surface. Ramekins have more lately been standardized to a size with a typical volume of 50-250 ml (2-8 ounce) and are now used for serving a variety of sweet and savoury foods, both entrée and desert.

They are also an attractive addition to the table for serving nuts,dips and other snacks. Because they are designed to hold a serving for just one person, they are usually sold in sets of four, six, or eight. Ramekins now are solid white, round, with a fluted texture covering the outside, and a small lip. Please bear in mind that whatever you ask for them on Internet auction sites, someone is still getting the same thing in an op shop for peanuts.

However, there are hundreds of decorative ramekins that came in a variety of shapes and sizes. They came in countless colours and finishes and many were made by our leading artists and ceramicists. My collection has ramekins with One handle only, fixed to the body at one point only. If it has no handle, it is a bowl. If it has two, it is a casserole dish. But the glory day of the Australian Studio Art ramekin is well and truly over. See some here, ask questions or leave answers.

P.S. Remember, just as real men don't eat quiche, real ramekins don't have lids or two handles. Also remember, two handles makes it a casserole dish. Also, please note If it aint got a handle, it's just a bowl.

P.P.S. To all you cretins who advertise your ramekins by associating them with "Eames" or "Eames Era". Get your hand off it, you are not kidding anyone. The Eames people have told me that they never made ramekins.

P.P.P.s To all the illiterates out there in cyberspace, just as there is no "I" in team, there is no "G" in Ramekin. I am the Rameking, they are ramekins.

If you have a set of Grandma's ramekins at the back of a kitchen cupboard, have a look through the site, maybe you will identify them. Thank-you for looking.

There are many of you out there that have knowledge of Australian pottery. Please let me know if you have anything that I can add to the notes. It is important to get the information recorded. You probably know something that nobody else does.

Please note that while your comments are most welcome, any that contain a link to another site will no longer be published.

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Friday, February 14, 2020

David Jones




Designer       
Not known
Maker
Diana Pottery Marrickville
Marks
Stamped in black ink to base “David Jones Bronze Lustre Stoneware Ovenproof
Material
Glazed slip
Description
Oval bowl angled inwards from lower third.  Brown gloss glazed ring to outside of bowl and entire inside of bowl Dark bronze colour matte glaze to whole of rest of external body, unglazed foot ring.
Condition
Very good
Number
No number. 
Production Date
Mid 1960s
Width at rim
120mm
Width at Base
125mm
Depth
45mm
Length (with handle)
160mm
Weight
245gm
Volume
450ml
Acquisition
Purchase, Mill Antiques,
Daylesford 15th February 2020

Rameking Reference Number
DAJ 001-004


Pickings have been rather slim lately, so it came as a surprise that I came across these recently.  In their latter stages, the successors to the Diana Pottery (on the same site) produced a series named “Dana.”  Dana used the old “Nefertiti” pattern to make these ramekins for the Sydney Department store, “David Jones.” 

David Jones began in 1837 in Sydney, New South Wales.  The company grew, creating a national retail chain. In 1982, David Jones bought Melbourne department store, Buckley & Nunn, including its properties on Bourke Street. The first David Jones store in Melbourne opened on the Bourke Street site that same year. Three years later, in 1985, David Jones acquired Adelaide department store John Martins, but operated it as a separate entity to the more upmarket David Jones-branded store.

During the Second World War (1941) Eric Lowe, a Sydney potter got Government contracts to produce ceramic wares for the armed forces. After the war, he changed production to domestic pottery and throughout the 1950s, Diana was the largest and most prolific pottery in New South Wales, producing hundreds of different products and designs.

I think it fair to say that you would have had a piece of Diana pottery in yours or your parent’s home at some stage, probably a mixing bowl or vase. The pottery was located at 122-126 Marrickville Road, Marrickville, Sydney and it continued until the mid-1960s, when cheap copies and imports caused a decline in sales.

They continued on for a few more years calling their output “Dana”.  Much of the Dana ceramics were copies of the later Diana “Nefertiti” ramekins, with a rough textured exterior and a brown glazed lip and interior. These are a lustre ware product made especially for the David Jones Department Store in the early 1970s.  Check out my Diana posts for lots more about Diana.  David Jones had previously made cream slip vases with gold handles for a gift shop in the Imperial Arcade in Sydney under the name “Imperial.”   

Lustre ware, fashionable in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s is produced by a process using a metallic overglaze on pottery or porcelain to produce an effect of iridescence. Pigments containing salts of gold and platinum are used.  It is produced by a second reduction firing at a lower temperature (640-740°C).








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