Some Christmas gifts are surprises. However this one was both a pleasant surprise and a mystery. We were given a beautiful little ceramic bottle in the shape of a book with a cork on the top.

My first reaction was: "oh, a nice way to conceal some brandy for a cold day!" Well, my assumption that it was something "for a cold day" was right, but that charming little gadget, although it could be made to be so, was not a brandy bottle but a hand warmer! It is a replica of an English hand warmer from the late 18th/early 19th Century made for the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It is my understanding that hand warmers were quite common in the cold English private libraries during our period of interest. Anyone who has handled books in a sporadically heated European library in the winter knows that hands get cold very quickly. So, a hand warmer was a most welcome gadget to keep your hands warm. But what about your feet?

More Leona's Corner:

Napoleon's Scandalous Sister Pauline
A Bread Recipe for the Staple of the Napleonic Soldier