A group of four Victorian copper jelly moulds, sold for £210 at Sworders’ auction, February 2024.
A recent Financial Times article explains “why we’re going wobbly for jelly moulds” and that “tablescaping, Instagram and modern banquets are feeding the frenzy for these shapely utensils”.
Victorian copper and ceramic moulds for jellies and blancmanges have been popping up across countless Instagram and Pinterest interior accounts.
But have prices changed?
A pair of c.1870 large copper jelly moulds, believed to have come from the kitchen of a large country house in Yorkshire, priced at £360 with Lemon Tree Antiques.
Kitchenalia and decorative homewares dealer Jodie Frances of J Frances trades online and by appointment in Suffolk. She has sold jelly moulds among her kitchenalia stock but believes a fashion trend to decorate with these objects has not translated into increased prices.
An Edwardian cornflour blancmange recipe mould priced at £82 with J Frances Antiques.
She says: “With jelly moulds, most houses would have had one, meaning they are still very common. So, unless you are talking about very rare early examples, there are so many that prices have not been impacted by a renewed interest in them.
“In lockdown there was an increase in demand for kitchenalia as people were stuck at home and started decorating their houses, but this is levelling off now.
“Trends usually happen when it is an easy to replicate idea: accessible and inexpensive, and jelly moulds are just that.”
However, rare examples are still very much in demand. Frances adds: “There has always been demand for the rarer examples. Collectors will spend an exorbitant amount of time and money to find the rarest examples.”
A rare Victorian copper jelly mould shaped as a tortoise or turtle, £2000 at Brighton & Hove Auctions, March 2023.
Collectors go for names including Victorian makers such as Benham & Froud. Prices for the best are usually in the hundreds of pounds. A recent rare example appearing at auction was a Benham & Froud tortoise or turtle on rockwork. At Brighton & Hove Auctions on March 30, 2023, it was estimated at £80-120. It sold to a collector in the north of England for a remarkable hammer price of £2000 (ATG No 2588).
