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Item 1375 of 2719

Vintage black coal scuttle from the 50s - 60s

SKU: 1080

Vintage black coal scuttle from the 50s - 60s

Black coal-scuttle in the shape of a tapered cylinder. There is an oblique opening at the top. Two handles are placed under each other at the front.

In a fine vintage condition with various traces of use.

  • Height: 56.7 cm.
  • Diameter (bottom): 22, 4 cm.

Coal scuttle
A coal-scuttle, sometimes spelled coalscuttle and also called a hod, "coal bucket", or "coal pail", is a bucket-like container for holding a small, intermediate supply of coal convenient to an indoor coal-fired stove or heater.

Coal scuttles are usually made of metal and shaped as a vertical cylinder or truncated cone, with the open top slanted for pouring coal on a fire. It may have one or two handles. Homes that don't use coal sometimes use a coal scuttle decoratively.

The word scuttle comes, via Middle English and Old English, from the Latin word Scutula, meaning a shallow pan. An alternative name, hod, derives from the Old French hotte, meaning "basket," and is also used in reference to boxes used to carry bricks or other construction materials. 

House heating
Until the 60s of the 20th century, many homes in the Netherlands and Belgium were heated with coal stoves. The coal was delivered in bags (they were paid for per mud) and dumped in coal sheds and cellars, from which they were scooped into a coal-scuttle to use them.

The rise of natural gas has caused the coal-scuttle to disappear from the living rooms. Important reasons for most families to switch to natural gas was first that heating with coal is much more laborious, one must keep in mind that there is enough coal on the fire, the ash must be cleaned up, when the fire is being made sometimes suffer from smoke in the room. In the long run, coal became more expensive in consumption than gas.

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