17th C. Table Etiquette

Another innovation was the so called ‘sucket fork’ a spoon and fork combination for use with ‘wet’ or ‘dry’ sweetmeats. The suckets would have been at the individual places— Sweetmeats or Dessert Service Layout, c.1670 Photograph Jeremy Phillips for Fairfax House, York

Improvements in table layout at this time included the idea of raising some of the food onto stands. This gave the opportunity to place extra dishes on the table and created a more sumptuous and three-dimensional concept of presentation. Large footed salvers of this type were often embossed on the broad rim with repoussé decoration of fruit and flowers. The Glossographia (1661) explains their early use “in giving beer or other liquid thing to save the carpit or cloathes from drips,” but they were soon put to other uses as stands for fruits, sweetmeats or even for glass crewetts. They were often fashioned by re-working old plate and it seems to be the case for this elaborate stand from Norwich Castle Museum.

Another innovation was the so called ‘sucket fork’ a spoon and fork combination for use with ‘wet’ or ‘dry’ sweetmeats. This set of five by John Smith, London, c. 1680 is a rare survival, as are the superb candlesticks by Jacob Bodendick, 1677. It was at the end of the meal that the candles were lit for the dessert course and whilst table candlesticks from the Restoration period survive in numbers, none are more majestic and innovative with their square fluted sockets, gadrooned square bases and cushion-shaped knops on baluster stems. – From “British Cutlery, An Illustrated History of Design, Evolution and Use,” York Civic Trust, 2001 

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia