What is the difference between a bucket and a scuttle?

In practice, very little. Dealers use bucket, scuttle, bin, hod and box for the same kind of vessel, and single titles routinely stack several of the words together. Scuttle is the commonest of them in these listings after brass and copper. Where a shape is meant rather than a function, the word used is helmet.

Are most of them brass or copper?

Both dominate. Roughly half the titles say brass and nearly four in ten say copper, and the two together account for the great majority of what comes to market. Wood is the minority: eight purdoniums in mahogany, carved oak, walnut and one inlaid. A scatter of cast iron and two painted toleware pieces make up the rest.

How old are antique coal buckets?

The dated field runs from 1800 to 1930. The earliest are a small run of George III copper and brass helmet scuttles dated 1800, and the latest a single Art Deco Gothic bucket of 1930. Much of the dating is broad. Many listings say only Victorian or 19th century, with the 1880s and 1900s the busiest decades that carry a clean year. Edwardian and 1920s pieces are thin on the ground.

Do they come with a shovel?

Sometimes. Shovel appears in ten titles, and the wooden purdoniums generally carry a liner and scoop as part of the set. One fireside tool set has turned up with a bucket included. Matching implements are treated as a selling point, and pieces with them sit higher in the range.

Can a coal bucket be used for logs?

Dealers say so themselves. About one in ten of these listings offers the piece as a log or coal bucket, or simply as a log bin. Size tends to drive it. The larger copper vessels are the ones described that way most often.

Are coal buckets sold in pairs?

Rarely. The overwhelming norm is the single vessel. Pairs and near-pairs do surface: two similar copper buckets, a pair of copper scuttles, a pair of French cast iron ones. Around seventeen coal buckets come to market a year on Sellingantiques, listed by 54 different dealers, so it is a category most fireplace dealers touch rather than a specialism.