Dessert-Trenchers in North America

[ppfuf]

Sadly, all the dessert trenchers in North America seem to be closer to New York than San Francisco. So, for those of you starting to make your Thanksgiving and Christmas travel plans, if you are going to any of these cities, perhaps the museum or library could be a fun family outing for all!
If you can find any of these, please take pictures. I'd like to have pictures of sufficient clarity and detail that I can read the texts. If pictures are not possible, please write down the texts and note the colors used

Roundels in The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York city
In Cosman’s Fabulous Feasts, there is a black and white picture, almost too small to be of much use of three roundels and their box. Unfortunately, the website of the Morgan Library and Museum does not have any pictures. There is a description of the "Sycamore trenchers" in the database, and Dr Wieck assured me the museum still had the trenchers as of 01 Jun 2007.
edited to add: L brought me pictures! So very Cool!

Banqueting Trenchers in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York city
“Set of eight banqueting trenchers and their case, English, seventeenth century. Sycamore with painted and gilded decoration, each 4 9/16 by 5 11/16 inches. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.”
In Caton’s "Fables and fruit-trenchers teach as much” a tiny black and white picture accompanied by the above text shows rectangular trenchers decorated with knot work and floral motifs. Each has nested rectangular patterns, similar to the concentric circles of the round trenchers. The innermost rectangle has densely packed and unreadable text.
edited to add: The Met has finally added pictures to their website! This is a set of 12, possibly Mrs. Bird's set.  

A set of 12 Elizabethan trenchers in the Taylor Collection, Princeton University New Jersey
"Elizabethan Roundels. England, 16th century. A boxed set of twelve painted wooden platters, housed in the original turned case, which is decorated with the royal arms of Queen Elizabeth and the motto Dieuet mon droit. One side of the roundels was decorated with fruit and flowers, with English verses."
Don Skemer, Curator of Manuscripts, says this set of trenchers resembles this set in the Fitzwilliam museum, and advises me that photos are cheaper than traveling across the country. If you can visit these trenchers in person, please contact him for an appointment first.
edited to add: I got to see these in dec 2011!

A single November trencher at the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts
In Caton’s Fooles and Fricassees, November is a single surviving trencher from a set of 12.
“Popular images for decorating trenchers included flowers, moral epigrams, sexual jokes, and husbandry scenes. The roundels were used in banqueting entertainments where the inscriptions were sung or read to the other revelers.”
Caton's text (page 81) lists it as:
Trencher
Wood, paper
Engraving by Crispijn van de Passe (1595-1612)
England, 1600-1650
belonged to Edward Winslow of the Plimoth Plantation
Pilgrim Society, Pilgrim Hall Museum, No. 149
Pilgrim Hall Museum is located at 75 Court Street (Route 3A), Plymouth, Massachusetts 02360. 
Pilgrim Hall Museum's hours of operation are 9:30-4:30, 7 days a week through December 30. Closed in January
edited to add: The director just sent me a photo!

Single floral trencher at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia
With a color picture, Caton’s "Fables and fruit-trenchers teach as much” displays a single trencher with a hand-colored woodcut of a strawberry plant.
“Banquet trenchers with painted decoration of a strawberry plant, English, c. 1580. Inscribed “What better state than to lie lowe farr from the face of parching heat/What fruite so near the grounde doth grow as I and yet so good to eate." Painted wood, diameter 5 5/16 inches. Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia.”
This appears to be the same trencher as appears in Fooles and Fricassees: Food in Shakespeare’s England. On page 63 is a black and white, but very clear picture accompanying “Fruit Trencher Wood, paint, England c 1700. Jamestown-Yorktown Educational Trust. JS91.22".
If you can get a curator to talk to you, I'd love to know if anything is known about the orginal floral woodcuts, as this is one of the sets I would most like to reproduce.

Dessert Trenchers in the ROM, Toronto Canada
Royal Ontario Museum has a full set of fruit trenchers, downstairs near the armor collection. They don’t have any images on their website. They are listed as "Dessert Trenchers with Storage Box English late 1500s 961.232.25a-n" and appear to be a set related to this set in the St Alban's Museum.

Comments

[sarahbellem.livejournal.com]

I passed your email along to my friend who works at the Colechester castle, but I haven't heard from her. I'll see if my email contact for her has changed and try again, but I just didn't want you to think that I'd forgotten!

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

Thanks for letting me know! I think about nagging you about it occasionally, but I've managed to resist so far. :)

[j-i-m-r.livejournal.com]

You might put a request out on the KW Laurel list. I'm sure there are Laurels near each of those museums and they might be willing to help with your project.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

http://educators.mfa.org/galleries/slideshow/3568
Slide 27 of 37. Looks like the Fitzwilliam and ROM sets, but no gilt. Center posie only on slide 27. _my son, keep yourself from all whoredom...(Tobias)_
Pictures of entire set on website: http://educators.mfa.org/objects/search?keyword=fruit+trencher&curGallery=0&search=Submit+Query&sort=&culture=&classification=

Website says:

Set of twelve fruit trenchers and box. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Bequest of Mrs. Stephen S. FitzGerald. Accession number: 64.1629
Fruit trencher
1575–1600
Overall: 12.7 cm (5 in.)
Wood; polychromed beechwood
Classification: Wood Carvings / Turnings
Type, sub-type: Set of twelve fruit trenchers and box
English
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Gift of Edith I. Welch (Mrs. Stuart C. Welch) in honor of Ellenor M. Alcorn and Jeffrey H. Munger
Accession number: 2000.588.4
Provenance/Ownership History: Please note: The history of ownership is not definitive or comprehensive, as it is under constant review and revision by MFA curators and researchers. Until 1971, Stair & Company, Williamsburg, VA; January 22, 1071, sold by Stair & Company to Edith I. Welch (Mrs. Stuart C. Welch), Warner, NH; gift of Edith l. Welch to the MFA. (Accession date: March 22, 2000)

Set of twelve Elizabethan roundels in beechwood, one side decorated in polychrome and gold floral, leaf, fruit and scroll devices encircling quotations from the Bible, one with a Death's head; contained in turned beechwood box retaining traces of original decoration.
Inscriptions: Paper squared in graphite pencil