My oldest 'What's-it?" yet...

[anglesmith]

 I agree it is a kitchen tool, not nessacary from a big kitchen. Some of the best "whitesmithed" (finely filed and polished) work of the local village blacksmith (USA) was given away as wedding gifts, thus the blacksmith's name and year! See Colonial Wrought Iron By Don Plummer.
This book is one of the best books on old forge work and are photo's from the Sorber Collection,since sold and dispersed.
Graeme

[JessEm]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I just wanted to post a follow-up with a good article regarding salamanders, followed by the authors opinion of THIS particular tool...

18th Century Kitchen Tools: Salamander©
Source: Posted with permission from Victoria Rumble @
http://thehistoricfoodie.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/18th-century-kitchen-tools-salamander%C2%A9/


Illustration of a salamander
 
Take a brief moment to think about every dish you serve which has been browned under the broiler to make it more visually appealing or to cook quickly under direct intense heat.  Ask yourself would the mac and cheese with the nice buttery bread crumb topping look as good when you send it to table if you didn’t brown it first?
 
Next ask yourself how you might go about browning the top of any dish if your broiler suddenly went on the fritz.
 
The odd looking tool pictured above was used for browning the surfaces of such dishes.  It was made of cast iron with a round, flat, but relatively thick plate attached to a long handle which made it possible to grasp the cooler end of the handle without getting so close to the heat of an open hearth fire.  The plate could rest on the two short legs while pushed into the hot coals so that the cook did not have to hold up its ample weight during the heating process.
 
Less often the plates were square rather than round.  This writer has found no illustration of a salamander with a square heating plate.  – Norwak, Mary.  Kitchen Antiques.  1975.  Praeger Publishers.
 
Salamanders without legs somewhat resemble a metal bread or oven peel except that they are much smaller and shorter than a peel.
 
During use, the red-hot round plate could rest on the legs and the dish could be passed underneath it, or if, say the dish was taller than the plate while resting on the legs, the salamander could be turned over and held by the cook who passed it over and around the surface of the dish.
 
Salamanders were not as common in Colonial era kitchens as many other tools and finding an original today is a rare treat.  A good blacksmith can make one that will rival a rare and expensive original.
 
Receipts which instructed the cook to brown the surface of a dish were being published by the early to mid 18th century, but for several
decades yet the writers would not automatically assume the cook possessed a salamander.  Some receipts told the reader to heat a shovel, meaning a  hearth-side fire shovel, till it became red hot and toast the dish with it by passing it over and around.  Other books called for a salamander to be used in the same manner, while still others told the cook to use whichever was available.
 

—Kitchen Scene, Patissier, Tour a Pâte, Bassines, Mortier &c, Robert
Benard, ca. 1760. For Diderot’s Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire Raisonne
des Sciences et des Arts.
 
The definition of a fire shovel from the 1770’s was, “an instrument to throw coals on a fire with”, nothing was said about the type of metal the shovel was made from.  – A New Complete English Dictionary.  1770.  Edinburgh.
 
Diligent research revealed, however, that fire shovels were made of iron, and therefore conducted heat as well for the job of browning as the salamander, accomplishing two tasks for the price of one tool.  – Boswell, John.  The Scot’s Magazine.  Vol. 30.  March 1768. 
 
“They roast or parch it in a fire shovel, or such like iron instrument…”.  - de Thévenot, Jean.  The Travels of Monsieur De Thevenot Into the Levant.  1686.  London.
 
In 1723, John Nott’s cookery book instructed the use of a red hot shovel in a dozen receipts, but made no mention of a salamander.  – Nott, John. The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary.  1723.  London.
 
The following receipt is somewhat unique in that it offers the cook the option of cooking on a bread peel, also heated until red hot, and to brown the surface of the eggs with a red hot fire shovel.  It does not mention a salamander.
 
To broil Eggs.  After heating an Oven Peel red hot, blow off the Dust, break the Eggs on it, and put them into a hot Oven, or brown them on the Top with a red hot Fire-shovel:  When they are done, put them into a Dish with some Gravy, Elder-Vinegar, and grated Nutmeg; or Vinegar, Pepper, Juice of Orange, and grated Nutmeg.  – The Lady’s Companion. 1743.  London.
 
In a book published in 1737, a dish of oysters was to be browned with either a salamander or a shovel.
 
Scallop-Shells of Oysters.  Set and beard them, season them lightly with Pepper, Salt and minced Parsley:  Butter the scallop-shells very well; then, when your Fish or Oysters are neatly laid in, pour their Liquor, thickened with grated Bread, over them, let them grill half an Hour and brown them with a red hot Salamander, or Fire-shovel:  You may garnish a Dish of Fish with them, or serve them by themselves for the second Course.  – The Whole Duty of a Woman.  1737. London.
 
Cookery books continued to instruct in the use of a red-hot salamander or shovel for browning a dish into the early 20th century.  For example, Frederick Vine’s 1907 book contained nine receipts which used a red hot salamander, but there was no mention of using a shovel.  – Vine, Frederick.  Practical Pastry:  A Handbook for Pastrybakers, Cooks, and Confectioners.  1907.  London.
 
Next time a historic receipt speaks of a salamander you will have a visual to associate with the tool and an understanding of how it was
used.

FWIW, the author looked at this thread and had this opinion of my "What's-it?": (Thanks!)

"If I might put in my 2 cents worth on the item in question.  You can pass my comments on to the list if you like.  It looks more like a tool for cutting/chopping, perhaps for large joints of meat, or a spatula.  The Scots used a kitchen tool, a spatula of sorts, which was often very decorative.  I'm sorry, I have one, but the name escapes me at the moment.   I don't think the metal is thick enough for a salamander.  Those were usually very thick (a half inch or so) and heavy as they were heated very hot (red-hot) to hold the heat long enough to brown the surface of a dish.  The fireplace shovels I've seen were blacksmith made and that thick - they were used as salamanders by people who did not possess one.  It appears to have had a sharpened edge which has dulled with time - a salamander would have been blunt-edged.  The handle may or may not be original to the piece, and that could be complicating the process of identifying it.  I hope this helps.  Very interesting, thanks for sharing!"

[Papaw]

Top notch research!
Kudos to you for establishing a good relationship with the author by asking permission before posting.

[Lump]

I love this stuff. Well done.

You know, we have all probably seen those films of ship workers cutting slabs of whale blubber with tools which look just about like this, but MUCH larger. And I THINK I have seen home-butchers (LONG ago) use something like this for shaving fat from a hog skin or carcass. But I was very young, and I'm not sure. It may very well be a spatula, but if so, I would expect it to be very thin metal, and not really sharpened. And the book author seemed to think it had been sharpened. But we'll probably never know for sure.

Either way, I've really enjoyed this thread, and I'm really impressed with the thorough research I've seen here.

Kudos!

[Batz]

I was leaning torward hyde scraper, until Branson's last post and a little research. Now I'm leaning torward "salamander." I found THIS picture. It looks like they could serve the same purpose:

Ths only downfall I can see by it being a 'salamander' is that the wooden handle is too close to the blade, surely it would have burned when placed in the coals?  The others pictured have longer metal shafts.

[rusty]

They still make a thin version of a tool like a salamander for caramelizing confectionaries, 1/8 thick, but not shaped like that...

The curved edge kinda leads me away from salamander tho, it takes work to make a curved edge, sharpened or not, there has to be a reason for it's being there, and it serves no purpose on a salamander,,,

Perhaps it's just a fancy cake serving utensil....

[Branson]

The curved edge kinda leads me away from salamander tho, it takes work to make a curved edge, sharpened or not, there has to be a reason for it's being there, and it serves no purpose on a salamander,,,
Perhaps it's just a fancy cake serving utensil....

Anglesmith gives a plausible reason for the decorative touches: "Some of the best "whitesmithed" (finely filed and polished) work of the local village blacksmith (USA) was given away as wedding gifts..."   Quite a few things were made pretty, especially if given as gifts.  It takes no work to speak of to make a merely functional S-hook,  but with a little more work (and pride) they can be made quite prettily. 

The blade on Jess m's is about 5 inches wide, which kinda leaves out cake servers. 

Too short for a salamander, and too thin to hold the heat.  The wood is also too close, and would burn.  I can't imagine trying to chop anything with this, given the length of the handle -- quite awkward.  Choppers in early kitchens didn't look a lot different from the Disston food choppers made into the 20th Century, and even those can be a little awkward to use. 

The tools used at an open hearth make things a little different.  There are two sorts of griddles, both of which hang from a crane that swings in and out of the fire place.  One has a lip like a frying pan, and is used for frying in a little oil or grease.  The other is nothing more than a round of iron.  For this second sort, a straight handled spatula would be ideal.  There are more examples, called "bake stones," some with griddle cakes or bannocks cooking on them at:

http://antiquekitchenalia.com/

There are also two examples of the other sort on this page.  The one to the far right has the bale split at one end and there's a spout there for pouring off grease or gravy.