My hubs just celebrated his birthday… here’s a little peek at some of his birthday bootie! The black C R letters in the background are vintage metal letters from old signs – you guessed it, in his initials! I picked these up at Trade Roots in Victoria, a great vintage home & decor boutique that my pal Nicole made me aware of.

On the left is Buffalo Trace bourbon, ‘the’ bourbon hubs uses when he makes Old Fashioned cocktails. Have you ever had one? And on the right is Courvoisier cognac, apparently the cognac of  Napolean! My point? Well, it’s actually the vintage piece in between the two! This is a brandy warmer.

Brandy warmers go waaay back to at least the 1700s, though back then they were far from the design above. Then, the warmer was a very simple, very tiny sauce pan filled with a drink of brandy and heated up on the stove.

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After about the 1830s a burner stand was introduced. This stand supported the tiny pan over a spirit lamp, a lamp that burns alcohol or other volatile spirits, but not oil.

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The heat from the flame warmed the brandy rather than setting the pan on the stove.

As you can see from hub’s gift, brandy warmers are still in use today, but a glass snifter has now replaced the silver pan!

This is the test run of the ‘new’ vintage warmer in action! And that’s not a dirty snifter, all that foggy white you see. No, that’s the steam and condensation from the brandy warming up!

What cool and interesting object from the past have you come across lately? I think this one is kind of fun! In case you’re wondering, this gift was purchased at the Highway Antique Emporium, aka the Antique Barn, outside of Chemainus. Would’ve been kind of fun if I’d thrifted it though! 😉

Thanks for stopping by!

Photographs by Sheila Zeller unless otherwise stated.