A SMALL COLLECTION OF ANTIQUE SILVER
AND OBJECTS OF VERTU
THE WHAT IS? SILVER DICTIONARY



CANTEEN

A case used by travellers and military officers to carry articles of silverware for eating and drinking.
It was a practice of English officers to travel with a canteen of silver to entertain in a proper fashion and style when posted to distant parts of the English Empire. The oak box would have made a good companion piece to the wooden campaign chests, desks, and beds with which they also traveled.


silver cantee: Goldsmith & Silversmiths Co 1904

Later the term was extended to to a case for domestic use for storing silver flatware and cutlery and a canteen is simply a set of tableware often with 12 place settings. A half-canteen has 6 place settings and a double canteen has 24. There are other sizes and often any boxed set of silver tableware may be properly labeled as a canteen.
Canteen in English translates simply to a ‘set’ in American.



silver canteen silver canteen: D&G Sissons 1897
silver canteen: Carrington & co 1910 silver canteen: George Withing 1860



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