This set of English painted sycamore trenchers were a wedding gift to Roger Simpson and his bride Mary in 1625 from their cousin. Each plate has an inscription that includes either the bride’s or groom’s name alongside verses about love, sex and marriage.
The lid of the box is inscribed The laboring bee that sucks of me such sweet, shows unto man, what things for him are meet.
Roundels such as this – used at the end of dinner for desserts and wordy entertainment – appear to have become widespread across society. Indeed, enough for John Donne to joke in 1669 that: “[Aesop’s] fables and fruit-trenchers teach as much.”