Gilded Age Fork Etiquette and Fashions

Four of the rarest forks you may see, these 4 “patty forks’ were only made for a brief period in the Gilded Age. Like mango forks, many collectors do not even realize these types of were created. Towle Silversmith’s did create a “Patty Server” but only Gorham made “patty forks.”
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These are in the 1888 Versailles pattern by Gorham. These are fully gilded, which is unusual. To Etiquipedia’s knowledge, patty forks were only made in 3 patterns, though there may be more. We have only seen them listed in the Chantilly, Luxembourg and Versailles patterns from the 1890’s to very early 1900’s.

A 2nd debut article from 2016

Eating olives with proper etiquette was a particular form of art—it was rumored that one imposter nobleman in France in the 1800s was recognized as a fraud by the way he ate his olives. The accused barbarian dared to eat his olives with a regular fork, instead of locating a proper olive fork—one which was designed with tiny, appropriately-sized tines.

Forks come in all shapes and sizes. Specialized designs for flatware exploded in number during the Victorian Era. In a panic to keep up with the latest serveware, aspiring couples accumulated a ridiculous number of pieces of cutlery. It was all a reflection of the culture at the time, which equated abstruse formal dining rules and etiquette with civilized society.

This was especially the case in America, where status wasn't as set in stone as in Europe. In the younger nation, social standing for the upwardly mobile was far more dependent on displays of wealth and class through, among other things, hosting and attending formal dinner parties. 

As formal dining evolved, so did the demand for increasingly nuanced (and perhaps absurd) silverware, resulting in giant horizontal tongs for asparagus, tiny yard-rake-like implements for spearing whole sardines, and a hybrid knife-fork for convenience in slicing and eating pie.

A gilded age variation on the original pie forks.

The pie fork, unlike some other Victorian cutlery, can be praised for its usefulness. The left side of the fork features a thick, sharp-edged tine for slicing into pie or tarts, but blunt ends for using the fork to eat the pie as you would a normal fork. – Saveur Magazine, 2016

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