buttery bar

English

Etymology

buttery (“a room where the butts or casks of wine are kept”) + bar

Noun

buttery bar (plural buttery bars)

1. (historical) A shelf attached to the top of the bottom half of the door to the buttery, on which the person tapping the butts would place full cups for the drinkers.
   • 1534, Thomas More's Account, in a letter to his daughter Margaret Roper, of his First Interrogation (before the King's Commissioners at Lambeth, April 13, 1534)‎^[1]:

     I never heard. I heard also that Master Vicar of Croydon, and all the remnant of the priests of London that were sent for, were sworn, and that they had such favor at the Council's hand that they were not lingered nor made to dance any long attendance to their travail and cost, as suitors were sometimes wont to be, but were sped apace to their great comfort so far forth that Master Vicar of Croydon, either for gladness or for dryness, or else that it might be seen (quod ille notus erat pontifici) went to my Lord's buttery bar and called for drink, and drank (valde familiariter).

   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

     SIR ANDREW An you part so, mistress, I would I might never draw sword again. Fair lady, do you think you have fools in hand?
     MARIA Sir, I have not you by the hand.
     SIR ANDREW Marry, but you shall have; and here's my hand.
     MARIA Now, sir, 'thought is free:' I pray you, bring your hand to the buttery-bar and let it drink.

   • 1838, William John Thoms, The Book of the Court‎^[2], page 349:

     The following Copy of an Order issued by Henry VIII, for the daily provision of one of the Ladies of Honour to Catherine of Arragon, while it sets forth the privileges of the office at that time, serves also to illustrate very strikingly the manners of that age.
     " We will and command you to allow daily from henceforth unto our right dear and well-beloved the Lady Lucy, into her chamber, the diet and fare hereafter ensuing. […]
     " Item, at dinner, a piece of beef, a stroke of roast, and a reward, at our said kitchen, a cast of chete bread at our pantry bar, and a gallon of ale at our buttery bar.
     " Item, at afternoon a manchet of bread at our pantry bar, and half a gallon of ale at our buttery bar.