I REALLY wanted to buy a beautifully hand painted pair of Coalport porcelain ice pails, c1802. An orange pheasant with golden wings perched on branches blooming with red and gold flowers. Then see panels of deep cobalt blue containing swirling gold leaves and flower medallions. On the top of each lid was a pagoda style cottage next to streams and trees. Imari colours of iron red, blue and green, with rich gold covering the scrolled handles and the twisted branches, were exotic. These porcelain coolers were traditionally placed on the dining-room sideboard, the bottom was filled with ice, then cream & fruit were added. [Most pairs of Georgian ice pails sold for $2,500-10,000, sadly for me].
![]()
Coalport porcelain ice pails, c1802,
1stDibs New York
This led to me reading histories of ice-cream, the best being Alfonso Lopez who explained that cold treats went back to the ancient world. Chinese people, for example, enjoyed a frozen syrup. By 400 BC, sharbat was a popular Persian treat, featuring syrups made from cherries, quinces and pomegranates cooled with snow. Thus the modern words sherbet, sorbet and syrup. Alexander the Great enjoyed ices sweetened with honey in 330 BC. Roman Emperor Nero enjoyed cold fruit juices mixed with honey at his banquets.
If icy products first evolved in Asia, they may have been introduced to Europe by Marco Polo after he arrived home from China in 1295 AD with recipes for flavoured ices. Chinese dealers procured ice from cold, mountainous areas, handlers packed it with straw to reduce melting and carried it to urban areas. Finally it was stored in icehouses.
The best known British recipe for ice-cream was published in LadyAnn Fanshawe in the mid 1660s. Presumably Lady Ann, whose husband Richard was Charles II's ambassador to King Phillip IV’s Spanish court, learnt about iced refreshments at the Madrid court. Her ingredients, mace and orange-flower water, became popular. Fruits and herbs, tea or coffee, honey and crumbled biscuits were also added.The term ice-cream in English first appeared in May 1671, among other elaborate dishes served at Windsor’s Feast of St George.
![]()
Ice cream was exclusively for the upper classes when it arrived in Britain
1stDibs New York
And royal porcelain factories like Sèvres near Paris produced ice-cream cups and saucers for shops and homes, as wealthy families joined the ice-cream excitement.
This led to me reading histories of ice-cream, the best being Alfonso Lopez who explained that cold treats went back to the ancient world. Chinese people, for example, enjoyed a frozen syrup. By 400 BC, sharbat was a popular Persian treat, featuring syrups made from cherries, quinces and pomegranates cooled with snow. Thus the modern words sherbet, sorbet and syrup. Alexander the Great enjoyed ices sweetened with honey in 330 BC. Roman Emperor Nero enjoyed cold fruit juices mixed with honey at his banquets.
If icy products first evolved in Asia, they may have been introduced to Europe by Marco Polo after he arrived home from China in 1295 AD with recipes for flavoured ices. Chinese dealers procured ice from cold, mountainous areas, handlers packed it with straw to reduce melting and carried it to urban areas. Finally it was stored in icehouses.
The best known British recipe for ice-cream was published in LadyAnn Fanshawe in the mid 1660s. Presumably Lady Ann, whose husband Richard was Charles II's ambassador to King Phillip IV’s Spanish court, learnt about iced refreshments at the Madrid court. Her ingredients, mace and orange-flower water, became popular. Fruits and herbs, tea or coffee, honey and crumbled biscuits were also added.The term ice-cream in English first appeared in May 1671, among other elaborate dishes served at Windsor’s Feast of St George.
Dream Scoops
![]()
Latini's book, 1694
New and Quick Ways to Make All Kinds of Sorbets with Ease
By the C17th private European estates had icehouses, then large public icehouses were built in cities. In some cities the ice trade was regulated by the authorities, who set prices & penalties for illegal sales. Then Sicilian Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli opened a Paris café in 1686, Il Procope. The site became a meeting place for noted intellectuals eg Benjamin Franklin, Victor Hugo, Napoleon. A perfect combination: intellectual social life and ice-cream! The café introduced gelato, the Italian version of sorbet, to the French public. It was served in small porcelain bowls resembling egg cups. Thus Procopio became known as the Father of Italian Gelato.
Europe’s growing middle classes discovered the pleasures of frozen sweets in local shops. Along with sorbetti i.e ices churned during freezing, there were granitas (fruit and ice), and sorbetti con crema (milk added).
An ice-cream recipe book was published in France in 1768: True principles for freezing refreshments.
![]()
Lady of the house, examining the trays of icecream prepared by the household staff.
Valencia 1775
Sorbetiera were Naples street vendors who sold sorbetto. Travellers to Naples often remarked on sorbetto in their scenes of the city’s street life. In 1839 the Countess of Blessington wrote: The gaiety of the streets of Naples at night was unparalleled. The ice-shops and cafes were crowded by the beau monde, the portable barrows in the streets were surrounded by more ordinary people. Naples alone had 43 legal ice sellers.
![]()
Naples street vendor selling sorbetto,
The C17th saw ice drinks being made into frozen desserts. With added sugar, sorbet was created. Antonio Latini (1642-92) was working for a Spanish Viceroy in Naples, and credited with being the first person to print a sorbetto recipe. And he was responsible for creating a milk-based sorbet, which most culinary historians call the first official ice-cream. In Naples, climate and culture came together and in 1690 a book on sorbetti appeared: New and Quick Ways to Make All Kinds of Sorbets With Ease.
New and Quick Ways to Make All Kinds of Sorbets with Ease
By the C17th private European estates had icehouses, then large public icehouses were built in cities. In some cities the ice trade was regulated by the authorities, who set prices & penalties for illegal sales. Then Sicilian Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli opened a Paris café in 1686, Il Procope. The site became a meeting place for noted intellectuals eg Benjamin Franklin, Victor Hugo, Napoleon. A perfect combination: intellectual social life and ice-cream! The café introduced gelato, the Italian version of sorbet, to the French public. It was served in small porcelain bowls resembling egg cups. Thus Procopio became known as the Father of Italian Gelato.
Europe’s growing middle classes discovered the pleasures of frozen sweets in local shops. Along with sorbetti i.e ices churned during freezing, there were granitas (fruit and ice), and sorbetti con crema (milk added).
An ice-cream recipe book was published in France in 1768: True principles for freezing refreshments.
Valencia 1775
Sorbetiera were Naples street vendors who sold sorbetto. Travellers to Naples often remarked on sorbetto in their scenes of the city’s street life. In 1839 the Countess of Blessington wrote: The gaiety of the streets of Naples at night was unparalleled. The ice-shops and cafes were crowded by the beau monde, the portable barrows in the streets were surrounded by more ordinary people. Naples alone had 43 legal ice sellers.
18th century
By mid-C19th, ice-cream saloons were plentiful along New York’s avenues, experimenting with different productions. Parkinson’s on Broadway created pistachio ice-cream. Patent Steam Icecream Saloon, named for its steam-operated freezing unit, catered to middle class women, wives of substantial tradesmen, mechanics and artisans. And Salem!
After America’s Civil War (1861–5), ice-cream’s popularity exploded across U.S, with specialist shops appearing for the middle classes. Their ice-creams, sorbets and sherberts were still a bit exotic: Mrs DA Lincoln produced several editions of pamphlets, including Frosty Fancies 1898 and Frozen Dainties 1899, published for the freezer manufacturer White Mountain. She used ice-creams made with arrowroot, cornstarch and gelatin, not eggs.
Although American street vendors started selling ice-cream only a few decades after France and the UK, America’s industrial revolution had to focus on the refrigeration issue. So note that in the US, continuous refrigeration became a reality with electrical freezers in 1926.
![]()
Photo credits: Dream Scoops.
Although the craze soon spread to the North American colonies, it was still an expensive luxury in the C18th. A New York merchant showed that Pres. George Washington spent c$200 for ice-cream in summer 1790! But the USA was where ice-cream finally became affordable to the masses. In 1843 New Yorker Nancy Johnson invented the first hand cranked ice-cream maker that drastically reduced production time, receiving the first US patent for a small-scale ice-cream freezer. American firms improved on her design and built new machines that lowered production costs. In 1851 Jacob Fussell of Baltimore Md built the first ice-cream factories!
By mid-C19th, ice-cream saloons were plentiful along New York’s avenues, experimenting with different productions. Parkinson’s on Broadway created pistachio ice-cream. Patent Steam Icecream Saloon, named for its steam-operated freezing unit, catered to middle class women, wives of substantial tradesmen, mechanics and artisans. And Salem!
After America’s Civil War (1861–5), ice-cream’s popularity exploded across U.S, with specialist shops appearing for the middle classes. Their ice-creams, sorbets and sherberts were still a bit exotic: Mrs DA Lincoln produced several editions of pamphlets, including Frosty Fancies 1898 and Frozen Dainties 1899, published for the freezer manufacturer White Mountain. She used ice-creams made with arrowroot, cornstarch and gelatin, not eggs.
Although American street vendors started selling ice-cream only a few decades after France and the UK, America’s industrial revolution had to focus on the refrigeration issue. So note that in the US, continuous refrigeration became a reality with electrical freezers in 1926.
London ice cream cart
1877