(Editor’s note: DeeDee Wood is the owner of Black Cat Curiosities, an online antiques research and sales venue.)

Soup tureens were and are made to serve around 6-8 people, depending upon the accompanying serving bowl. As soup was and is still the start of most meals in Western culture and beyond, the soup tureen, during the 18th and early 19th centuries, was important for proper table settings, and would be brought to the table first to consume the dish within.

Recently, I was in a rather grand museum, Winterthur, in Wilmington, Del., and found myself in a hall of soup tureens.
A vessel for soup and culinary concoctions, they also can be works of art. Viewing this amazing collection got me thinking about soup, and late fall, and the research began into this lost art of grand serving and dinner arrangements.
The word tureen is thought to be attached to these communal serving bowls by way of honoring the French 1600s military hero, Marshal Tureen.
The first formal bowls were thought to originate in France and were associated with French Provencal soups, and later given the military hero’s name as a way of lasting honor. The word terrine is also an old French word meaning “large circular bowl.”
The soup tureen has deep roots in a table setting, with the earliest connotations of the vessel being a central bowl from which one meal could be cooked in and served into smaller bowls, such as on ancient farms after a long day of work, as the stews or soups would be much needed and welcomed.
Earlier vessels such as this in European farming communities, would have been more crude, with a clay body and no lid, but with a wide lip and a handmade ladle to serve.
Fast-forward a bit to France, with the decadence of Louis the Sun King, and you have the French tradition of the time of serving all of the meals at once on a table.
The soup tureen would have been a center piece star of the table, as the large bowl, lid and ladle would take up much room on the dining table.
This began, too, the French faience (tin glazed pottery that produced vivid colors) period of style, with rich details, gold highlights, and a vessel built to impress.
Soup tureens were and are made to serve around six to eight people, depending upon the accompanying serving bowl.
As soup was and is still the start of most meals in
Western culture and beyond, the soup tureen, during the 18th and early 19th century, was important for proper table settings, and would be brought to the table first to consume the dish within.
During a time period where more people served more formally for occasions of life, the table would be a grand affair, and showing your soup tureen to visiting guests produced envy and wonder.
Tureens have had many styles and materials. 18th century tureens saw whimsical animals, cabbages, swans and high decoration motifs.
Clay bodies, porcelain, ceramics and silver were some materials used through a span of 300 years of soup creation.
Tureens can come in different sizes as well, from the grand star that sits in the middle of the table, to smaller, individual tureens that sit in front of the attendee, and are meant to serve one.
The largest and grandest examples of soup tureens in the world were collected by a member of the famous Campbell’s Soup family, and were donated to the Winterthur Museum (the museum mentioned earlier) and are on display in a grand hall just for them.
Soup tureens are not used as much in modern, fast-paced lifestyles, as serving pots and bowls, and other ways of quick food preparation have replaced the elegance and grace of full place settings and sitting down for several courses of meals.
Collected for beauty and remembrance, the soup tureen is a communal serving idea from the past that still graces our tables today during special occasions, or through the glass for viewing in a display case.