Egg Spoons and Egg Etiquette

Erasmus, in his treatise on manners, de civilitate morum puerilium (On the Civility of the Behavior of Boys), 1530, warned against cleaning out the shell's contents with the fingers or tongue.— Figure 74 from the Tiffany Silver Flatware book—A selection of egg spoons with gilded bowls in Tiffany full-line patterns. Left to right: Vine (iris), 4in.; Lap Over Edge, 4 in.; Persian, 4 in. The egg-shaped bowl of the Lap Over Edge specimen is standard. The shield-shaped bowl of the other two examples is unusual.

The soft-boiled egg has been a favorite food for a long time but before the appearance of egg cups and spoons presented problems as to how it should be eaten. Erasmus, in his treatise on manners, de civilitate morum puerilium (On the Civility of the Behavior of Boys), 1530, warned against cleaning out the shell's contents with the fingers or tongue. Apparently the use of a small knife was acceptable, as was dipping small pieces of bread into the egg. 

Italians at one time were given to drinking a barely heated egg right out of its shell. At first, egg spoons were used not to eat the egg directly but to transfer the semi-liquid contents to a plate, where it was mashed with butter, or to a glass, from which it was drunk.

Egg spoons have always been appropriately small, usually about 4 to 5in. in length, but the shape of the bowl has varied. Some bowls are very slightly oblong, others almost pear-shaped. Still others are shield shaped. 

The most commonly-observed Tiffany egg spoon bowl is egg-shaped, but the bowl of what we think is the egg spoon in some of the early patterns has a shield shape. Bowls of egg spoons are usually gilded to protect against discoloration from the sulfur in yolks. The handle on Tiffany's egg spoon is that of a large coffee spoon.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, egg spoons and cups were often part of an egg cruet, or egg stand, sometimes surmounted by a salt cellar. Tiffany made these, along with silver or silver-plated egg boilers, or coddlers.— Tiffany Silver Flatware- 1845-1905- When Dining Was an Art, 1999

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