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This copper warming pan is one of two purchased by the donor in 1927. The warming pan, a forerunner of the rubber hot water bottle, was filled with hot embers and inserted between the bed clothes to warm a bed, and was removed before the bed was occupied. The cover of each of these two pans is engraved with a peacock and foliage, and they are believed to date from the eighteenth century. There is a legend associated with them that when the Roman Catholic Queen Mary of Modena, second wife of James II, gave birth to a male heir in 1688 the Whigs feared the child would be brought up a Catholic and spread the rumour that the Queen's doctor, a Dr Peacock, had introduced the child into the Queen's bed in a warming pan.

1 warming pan: metal (copper); good condition

bought in Reading, Letter, I. N. C. Neobard to MERL, 1 February 1958 – ‘I am writing to enquire whether the University would care to accept for the Museum two warming pans, one copper and one brass, 12” in diameter with handle 2’ 9” long? They are rather unusual, in that the cover of each pan is engraved with a peacock and foliage. // When a male heir to the throne was born in 1688 to Mary of Modena, the Queen’s accoucheur was a Dr. Peacock. The Whigs fearing, that the child would be brought up a Roman Catholic, spread the rumour that Dr. Peacock had introduced a boy into the Queen’s bed in a warming pan. Hence the Warming Pan Scandal in which there was no truth. // I cannot quote any authority for the story about Dr. Peacock, but it seems unlikely that it was made up to explain the peacock where the peacock confirms the story. // I have had these two warming pans since 1927 and have never seen any other with this engraving.’

1700-01-01 - 1799-12-31

Eighteenth century