The material culture of waffles

The Gruuthusemuseum in Bruges holds two early 15th century waffle irons in the collection: they are the oldest known waffle irons in the Low Countries and most likely even the world. One iron, dated by the museum between 1430 and 1450, is intricately carved with the coat of arms of the Burgundian duke John the Fearless on one side and the Star of David on the other side. The second iron has the coat of arms of Burgundian duke Philip the Good on one side and the Lamb of God on the other. These two irons are rectangular and they do not show the grid pattern we associate with waffles today. In Germany I found a number of similar 15th-century irons,11 and not just rectangular ones. A round iron is dated 1473 and has the coat of arms of the Archbishop of Salzburg; also in Salzburg is a rectangular iron with a crane, dated 1497. The most spectacularly carved one is a rectangular iron in Nuremberg showing a pelican and her young and a Reichsadler (imperial) eagle on one side and a Brunswick lion and entailed fish on the other, with a handy date – 1531 – carved in the middle. In the 16th and 17th centuries we find many more irons, and it is at this time when they are most intricately carved, showing the craftsmanship of the blacksmith who forged them.