Sauce de bernis - Say lace

Sauce de bernis

A PREPARED SAUCE, like so many others with a FRENCH name, made by BURGESS one of the major manufacturers of such products in the late-eighteenth century. It was an accompaniment, so the reader is told, 'for hot Roast Mutton, Broiled Chicken, &c.' [Tradecards (18c.)]. In this it complemented his SAUCE ROYAL, which was designed for FISH dishes. Nothing further is known; neither why it was so called nor its composition.

Sources: Tradecards.

Sauce des isles brittanique

One of several PREPARED SAUCEs given a French name, possibly to make it sound as if it was the product of high-class French cooking. It was a proprietary keeping sauce, made and promoted by one of the chief manufacturers of sauces in the late eighteenth century [Tradecards (1800)]. Apart from that, nothing is known of its name or indeed its ingredients.

Not found in the OED online

Found in units of BOTTLE, CASE

Sources: Tradecards.

Sauce piquante

A proprietary PREPARED SAUCE 'for cold meats' [Tradecards (18c.)]. Although given a FRENCH name, as was often the case with these sauces, it was probably similar to a GREEN SAUCE or a HERB SAUCE as prepared in a domestic kitchen. It was made, according to one cookery writer, of 'salad herbs' cut fine, GARLIC, SHALLOTs, MUSTARD, VINEGAR and PEPPER [Macdonald (fl. 1800)], though he also gives a version for a hot dish.

By the 1820s the term had become also a way of expressing contempt as a quotation in the OED from Hazlitt's Table Talk conveys: 'How fine were the graphical descriptions he [William Cobbett] sent us from America:..what a fine sauce piquante of contempt they were seasoned with!'

OED earliest date of use: 1821 as an expression of contempt under Piquant

Sources: Tradecards.
References: MacDonald (fl. 1800).

Sauce royal

A PREPARED SAUCE, given, like many similar products, the spurious distinction of a FRENCH name and an association with royalty. It was invented by BURGESS and was apparently designed to add flavour to a home-made sauce served with FISH [Tradecards (18c.)]. It is an early example of a product made specifically to help the cook 'improve' what might otherwise have been insipid homely fare, rather than to be served at table. In this it seems to have been similar to SAUCE A LA SUISSE, which was made and advertised by one of Burgess' rivals [Tradecards (1800)]. In addition, Burgess' sauce could serve as 'an useful Sauce for the Side board' [Tradecards (18c.)].

Non-keeping versions of a sauce with this name, usually with the anglicised name of Royal Sauce appeared in some recipe books, for example [Macdonald (fl. 1800)], for either fish or meat.

Not found in the OED online

Found described as new invented

See also SAUCE de BERNIS.
Sources: Tradecards.
References: MacDonald (fl. 1800).

Sauce spoon

[sauce turrens spoons; sauce turreens stands & spoons]

A SPOON with which to serve SAUCE, probably most often in the form of a small LADLE. Sauce spoons were usually found as part of a sit consisting of a SAUCE TUREEN, its STAND and spoon.

Not found in the OED online

Sources: Inventories (late).

Sauce tureen

[sauce turren; sauce turreen]

A vessel, judging from valuations rather larger than a SAUCE BOAT, but intended likewise as a receptacle from which to serve SAUCE. Tureens often came as part of a set, which included a STAND and a SAUCE SPOON. It was a fashionable article and was therefore supplied both in SILVER and in other materials by up-market potters like Wedgwood [OED, Sauce].

OED earliest date of use: 1765

Found in units of DOZEN

Sources: Inventories (late).

Saw

[sawe]

A cutting TOOL consisting of a plate of metal, one edge of which is cut into a continuous series of teeth. The original form, and the probably the only one found in the early modern period, involves teeth that were set to be effective in one way only, although the operator was obliged to pull the tool back and forth. The best saws were made of STEEL, others of hardened IRON. According to Abraham Rees, the 'best saws are of tempered steel, ground bright and smooth: those of iron are only hammer hardened; hence the first, besides their being stiffer, are likewise found smoother, than the last' [Rees (1819-20, 1972 ed.)]. Once the blade had been cut from a sheet of metal, the teeth had to be set in a SAW SET or wrest. By this process, alternate teeth were bent slightly outwards. This enabled the saw to cut a 'groove or 'kerf' that was slightly wider than the blade so facilitating the movement of the saw back and forth. The coarser the kerf, the broader the groove. A coarse kerf was largely used to cut soft woods, a fine kerf was better for HARD WOOD and fine work.

Charles Tomlinson divided saws into three types:

1. the taper saws with the blade narrowing along its length. These had a handle at each end if long, as in the PIT SAW and CROSS CUT SAW, or if less than about 30 INCH with one handle, like the HAND SAW and Panel saw. The LOCK SAW is also included in this group;

2. the parallel saws that had, as their name suggests, parallel sides, as well as a stiffened rib or back along the opposite side to the teeth. The TENON SAW belongs to this group;

3. framed saws with an external frame for straining the saw blade along its length. These saws have very thin blades. The FRAMING SAW belongs to this group [Tomlinson (1854)].

Charles Tomlinson gives a good description of the complicated processes involved in the making of saws, and of the different types [Tomlinson (1854)].

The following types of saw have been noted either only once in the Dictionary Archive, or only as alternative names in articles for more frequently mentioned types:

Board saw: see HAND SAW

Bow saw: see FRAME SAW, TENON SAW

Cayd saw: [Inventories (1677)] meaning unknown

Compass saw: see LOCK SAW

Cross saw: see CROSS CUT SAW

Flanted or Flauted saw: [Inventories (1677)] meaning unknown

Grafting saw: [Inventories (1677)] a TENON SAW used to cut off stocks for grafting

Hagg sawes: [Inventories (1667)] possibly a Hack saw for cutting metal

Inlaying saw: see TENON SAW

Panel saw: [Inventories (1794)] for cutting thin BOARD or panels

Sawyers saw: see PIT SAW

Stock saw: [Inventories (1627)] possibly an alternative name for a grafting saw

Veneering saw: see TENON SAW

Web saw: [Inventories (1677)] meaning unknown

Weight saw: see PIT SAW

Types of saw given a separate enty in the Dictionary are: CROSS CUT SAW, DISMEMBERING SAW, FRAME SAW, FRAMING SAW, HAND SAW, HEAD SAW, LEG SAW, LOCK SAW, LONG SAW, PIT SAW, TENON SAW, TWO HAND SAW, WHIP SAW.

OED earliest date of use: c1000

Found described as GREAT, Joiner's, LARGE, OLD, SMALL Found made of STEEL

See also SAW SET, SAWDUST, SAWN BOARD.
Sources: Diaries, Inventories (early), Inventories (mid-period), Inventories (late), Newspapers, Patents, Rates.
References: Rees (1819-20, abridged 1972), Tomlinson (1854).

Saw set

[sawsett; saw sett]

The context of this term as it appears in the Dictionary Archive suggests that it was what Randle Holme labelled a 'Saw wrest', which he described as 'an Instrument of Iron either set in a handle or not, for it may be used as well without; in the edge of it are made three or four, or more Nicks; with this (the Joyner having filed the Teeth of his Saw) he sets the said Teeth; that is, he puts one of the Nicks or Notches of the Wrest between the first two Teeth of the Blade of the Saw, and then turns the Wrest, and it will turn one Tooth to you, and the other from you; and so do all along the Saw: This setting of the Teeth of the Saw (as the Work-men call it) is to make the Kerfe wide enough for the Back to follow the edge; and is set ranker (that is, more bending outwards) for soft and course cheap Stuff, than for hard and costly Wood' [Holme (2000)]. The only saw wrest noted in the Dictionary Archive was listed in a late American inventory [Inventories (1809)]. Possibly the 'Saw strops' noted in one advertisement was an alternative name [Tradecards (1698)].

Not found in the OED

Found in units of DOZEN

Sources: Inventories (late).
References: Holme (2000).

Sawdust

[saw-dust]

WOOD in the state of small particles, detached from a tree, PLANK etc. in the process of sawing. It was used as a material for stuffing articles like a BABY, and was spread on floors to absorb moisture. It was also burnt on fires for FUEL and used for packing fragile goods for transportation [Tradecards (1800)].

OED earliest date of use: 1530

Sources: Houghton, Recipes, Tradecards.

Sawn board

[sawne boorde; sawne board; sawen bord; sawedboard; sawed bord; sawed boorde; sawed boarde; sawed board; sawde borde; sawdborde; saw'd boord]

In a sense, a largely unnecessary term since almost any BOARD had been produced by sawing [but see CLOVE BOARD]. The term seems at times to have been used in one of two specific ways; firstly to contrast boards with TIMBER not yet prepared, as in 'Timber & Sawedboards' [Inventories (1711)], and secondly, as in 'All the sawed boardes about the house vjs' [Inventories (1597)] to cover all the dressed wood in the house used as FURNITURE, elsewhere called DISH BOARD and TABLE BOARD and the like. However, most examples do not seem to have had either of these specific meanings. Other WOOD occasionally described as sawn included RAIL, SPAR, TIMBER, WAINSCOT, and WOOD.

OED earliest date of use: 1495 as Sawboard under Saw; 1536 as Sawn board under Sawn

Found in units of FOOT

Sources: Houghton, Inventories (early), Inventories (mid-period), Inventories (late).

Saxon blue

[saxton blue; blue saxon]

According to some it is a synonym for PRUSSIAN BLUE [Sebino.it/pigments (online)], but a recipe patented in 1748 included OIL OF VITRIOL (concentrated sulphuric acid), RED ARSENIC, INDIGO and COBALT in a process differing from that used to make prussian blue [Patents (1748)]. An upholsterer of Wolverhampton had a variety of TEXTILEs defined as saxon blue in colour [Inventories (1780)], but this use of the term has not been noted elsewhere in the Dictionary Archive.

OED earliest date of use: 1753

Found describing CHECK, CHENEY, LACE, LINE, MORINE, TASSEL, WINDOW CURTAIN

Sources: Inventories (late), Patents.
References: Sebino.it/pigments (online).

Saxon green

[green and blue saxon]

A patent in 1748 includes a recipe for Saxon green, which involved adding a ready prepared blue DYESTUFF (that is SAXON BLUE) to a vat of OLD FUSTIC or YOUNG FUSTIC [Patents (1748)]. Apart from this record, Saxon green has been found both as a colour defining a TEXTILE and as the name of one. In this case it may be the fabric in question was a green coloured 'saxone', not otherwise noted in the Dictionary Archive, but defined by Montgomery as an inexpensive dress material with a SILK warp and a LINEN weft [Montgomery (1984)].

OED earliest date of use: 1753

Found describing BROADCLOTH

See also SKY BLUE.
Sources: Newspapers, Patents.
References: Montgomery (1984).

Say

[sey; seay; sea; saye]

A TEXTILE of fine texture resembling SERGE; in the sixteenth century sometimes partly of SILK, subsequently almost always entirely of WOOL. It was woven with a distinct two-and-two twill with a single weft and the warp twisted from two or three THREADs. It was distinguished from SERGE only by the bolder warp. Its manufacture in East Anglia was probably introduced in the fifteenth century, though there are records that suggest it was still regarded as 'outlandish' a hundred years later [Kerridge (1985)]. Say was a STUFF and therefore was included among the NEW DRAPERIES. Valuations of this fabric fell within the range of other similar ones running from 14d to as high as 3s 6d. Parliament attempted to protect the home manufacture of WORSTED, says and other similar fabrics from foreign competition [Acts (1541)], but if the 1600 Book of Rates is anything to go by, duties on imported says did not stem the flood. The book listed four imported varieties; 'Sayes, double Sayes, or Flanders serges', 'Double Say or Serge', 'Mil'd Says' and 'Hounscot Say' [HONDSCHOOTE SAY]. Before 1660 the term was used for a covering apparently with the same functions as CARPET.

OED earliest date of use: 1297

Found described as BLACK, BLUE, BROAD, of divers colours, DOUBLE, DUTCH, ELL BROAD, FRENCH, GIRDLING, GREEN, HAIR COLOUR, IN GRAIN, MILLED, MIXED, mixed wool silk, NARROW, PURPLE, RED, SILK, STRIPED, TAWNEY, three quarter broad, twisted, unmilled, WHITE, YARD BROAD, YELLOW Found used to make an APRON, BANKER, BED, BUFFET STOOL, CUPBOARD CLOTH, CURTAIN, HANGINGS, HAT, JACKET, VALANCE Found in units of PIECE, YARD Found rated by PIECE, YARD

See also GREEN SAY, HONDSCHOOTE SAY, SAY LACE, SERGE.
Sources: Acts, Diaries, Inventories (early), Inventories (mid-period), Inventories (late), Rates.
References: Kerridge (1984).

Say lace

Sometimes abbreviated to SAY, this type of LACE is not referred to in the authorities, and it appears only rarely in the Dictionary Archive. It seems to have been NARROW, since it was offered for sale as PENNY BROAD (considerably less than ¼ INCH), which would suggest something similar to a POINT. However, it was also sold by the PIECE, suggesting a decorative lace similar to EDGING LACE. Another possibility is scribal error for STAYLACE.

Found described as PENNY BROAD Found in units of DOZEN, PIECE

See also POINT, STAYLACE.
Sources: Inventories (early).