When rusticity of life took over, many women still took pride in adding a little civility to their table. In this week’s What’s New Wednesday, the caster set takes center stage. The name caster set comes from the late 1600’s, when the wealthy would have these on their own tables, filled with powder condiments (salt, pepper, sugar, etc.) that could be “cast” or sprinkled on to food. The term caster set comes from this history.
The caster set here is said to be made of uranium glass, also commonly known as Vaseline glass. According to the website , the element Uranium was added to the glass for color before melting. Starting in the 1830’s, it provided many different shades of yellow and green. Usually, 2% uranium was used but it could have been as high as 25%. In the 1950s, the term "Vaseline glass" came into existence to describe a very distinctive canary yellow shade of uranium glass. The easiest way to tell if the piece is uranium glass is to use a black light, which will cause the item to glow.
This caster set has etching to decorate it. It is also ridged so that when set in the holder it catches not sitting all the way on the table, but almost floating. According to the donor, Mrs. Russell Cole, it was used by her mother, Mrs. John Hendricks. Her uranium glass caster set certainly helped to set a very fine table.
SDAHM 1968:104:107 A-B Donated by Mrs. Russell Cole