The gridiron or "griddle" was an appliance used extensively all over the Continent of Europe from the sixteenth century onward. In this country it was formerly made by the village blacksmith, and, like the iron stool, kitchen fender, and other iron and brass kitchen utensils and furnishings, was often made quite decorative. It would appear as if the smith filled up his spare moments in designing intricate patterns with which to decorate the grid. Some of the sixteenth and seventeenth-century European gridirons were quite elaborate, serving the double purpose of ornament and use, for when finished with for cooking purposes they were carefully cleaned and polished and hung up over the kitchen mantelpiece. Some of the characteristic types met with are shown in the accompanying illustrations. In Fig. 43 is seen the light and lacy Italian style; in Fig. 44 the openwork design of the Flemish; a formal Dutch pattern being illustrated in Fig. 45; whereas the heavy German floreated type is shown in Fig. 46. Contrasting with these Continental types the English gridiron was strong and serviceable, and essentially a grid or grill, the smith putting his best work in the handle rather than the grid. Cooking Utensils. Besides pots and pans there are many cooking utensils which may now be reckoned among the domestic curios. There are, of course, ewers and basins, water-carrying and retaining vessels, and colanders of brass and earthenware, strainers and graters which have been used from time to time in the kitchen. Sometimes the metal worker appears to have gone out of the way to produce curious forms not always the most convenient for the purposes for which they were made--such, for instance, as the aquamaniles, several of which may be seen in the British Museum (see Fig. 26). [Illustration: FIG. 50.--WOODEN COFFEE CRUSHERS AND PESTLES AND MORTAR.] [Illustration: FIG. 51.--APPLE SCOOPS OF BONE.]