An Etiquette “Idiotorial” from 1919

“There are usually so many different kinds of knives, forks and spoons at the average dinner party that it might be a good idea to have the jeweler engrave its use on the handle… When the jewelers are marking forks they ought to move the tines closer together, so that the food won't sip through the cracks and fall on your chest and spoil your rented dress suit. With clothes the price they are, somebody ought to invent a spotless food.” ~ Above– Four forks which never became popular – An American-made, “left handed” fork and three, British-made forks. The three to the right were designed by Ellington in 1867 as “gravy forks or pea forks”. The tines are melded together all except for the ends in order to more conveniently scoop up one’s gravey, or one’s peas. Pease were a staple of British life in the 1800’s and many people in 1867 were still eating their peas from their knives.

Table Manners Not as Necessary As the Food to Practice Them On

There is a school in town which teaches table manner. This may be a good idea, but before we learn how to eat our food we ought to learn how to get it. If it wasn't for table manners, we could just have a set of knives and save ourselves the expense of a lot of silverware.

A lot of people claim that good table manners help them in getting invited out to dinner often. The bird who gets invited out is the one who doesn't cop too much of the table silver when he's visiting.

There are usually so many different kinds of knives, forks and spoons at the average dinner party that it might be a good idea to have the jeweler engrave its use on the handle.

Or it might be a good plan to make the handle longer and print on it everything that may be eaten with it. Take a spoon, for instance. It could have written on it “To be used for soup, coffee, ice cream, pudding, tea, jelly, prunes and mush.”

If you get some food which you never saw before, you could just look over the different silverware and find out which tool to eat with. If the name didn't happen to appear on any of the knives, forks or spoons, just tell your host or hostess that he doesn't care for any.

Grapefruit spoons should be equipped with a windshield or some other contrivance to keep the Juice ont of your neighbor's eye. Either this, or pass goggles to all of the diners.

When the jewelers are marking forks they ought to move the tines closer together, so that the food won't sip through the cracks and fall on your chest and spoil your rented dress suit. With clothes the price they are, somebody ought to invent a spotless food.

Can you imagine how nice it would he to have an egg which you could drop on your white shirt front without soiling it. Of course, it's hard enough to get any kind of an egg at all without going out and hunting for a non-spot.  

This table manners school ought to teach diners not to hit you in the stomach with their elbow every time they try to cut their meat. You can't tell whether they're eating or giving you a massage. 

People should stop using little squares of butter and eut them into balls so that you can roll them around the table instead of passing a heavy plate. An amateur would have to practice playing pool in order to be able to direct the balls. 

The same thing could be done with peas and olives. Instead of the maid passing the dish, she could just stand at one end of the able and roll five or six peas to each guest. After a little practice, a diner could soon get them to roll up his knife and into his mouth. This would save a lot of dishwashing. 

Still, this would confuse the diners. They wouldn't be able to tell whether they were eating or playing tennis. There’s only one suggestion we’d like to make. Tell us how to get the food and we’ll find a way to eat it. 

*On a side note: Amber is believed by the Turks to be an infallible guard against injurious effects of nicotine; hence its extensive use for mouthpieces of pipes.– From “Love, Laughter, Life: An “Idiotorial,” by humorist, John P. Medbury, 1919

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

Ignoring Civilities Can Cost You

 

“For this exploit he had to pay five dollars.” One should always use the butter knife, spreader or butter pick provided, rather than their own table or dinner knife..., but these are minor etiquette faux pas compared to the outright bad manners of hurling a knife at a restaurant wall in anger!
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Above, assorted antique silver butter knives, butter spreaders and butter picks.
Photo source, Etiquipedia private photo library

 

We have heard of a well-dressed stranger at a great hotel in Boston who, having used his own knife for the butter, flew into a violent passion with the waiter for respectfully pointing out to him the silver butter-knife.

Swearing that the knife he had been putting into his mouth was quite good enough, afterward, for any butter in the world, the gentleman flung the silver knife across the table and broke it against the wall. For this exploit he had to pay five dollars. —New York Times 1931

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

Saratoga Chip Etiquette

Two antique “Saratoga Chip” servers in sterling silver. The gilding on the top server protects the silver from the salt — “Saratoga Springs, the most famous American resort of the Nineteenth Century, was the birthplace of Saratoga Potato Chips. These delicacies were first served in one of Saratoga’s fashionable hotels. The delicious golden brown chips so delighted the diners that they took the chips with them to the Saratoga Races. From there these crip, irresistible tidbits became world famous. Today you’ll find that potato chips add to the enjoyment of any summer outing, stay-at-home picnic or cocktail party.” — Mill Valley Record, 1946

What is it about Saratoga or Potato Chips? Perfect For Picnics and for Etiquette Humor in the 19th and 20th Centuries!

Etiquette : A Metropolitan Society Expert Offers Some Original Suggestions

Q. (1) How should Saratoga chips be eaten? Is it proper to use your hands in conveying them to the mouth?
(2) How should a hot baked potato be handled? 

A. (1) The Saratoga chip should be conveyed to the mouth with a monkey-wrench; the one from your bicycle tool-bag may suffice. Once landed, it is eaten by opening and closing your mouth to the music of a Hungarian orchestra.
(2) The hot baked potato should be handled with boxing gloves. —San Jose Mercury News, 1898

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Dear Miss Manners: What is the proper way to eat potato chips?

Gentle Reader: With a knife and fork. A fruit knife and an oyster fork, to be specific. Good heavens, what is the world coming to? Miss Manners does not mind explaining the finer points of gracious living, but she feels that anyone without the sense to pick up a potato chip and stuff it in their face should probably not be running around loose on the streets. — Judith Martin, c.1997

🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor of the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Baffling Etiquette Starts 1919 Fad

The new fad has come as a bright light of hope to the thousands of people whose formal dinner parties have too often been ruined by the use of the wrong fork or spoon. It is welcomed by the mere man who presides at less formal affairs and is afraid to meet his wife’s eyes for fear that he is serving potatoes with a tomato spoon or asparagus with a pie fork. Indeed—many problems have been solved by the fad. 

New System For Dinners? A Boon for Guests? Come Out Even at the Finish with this New Fad!
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You Can’t Use the Wrong Fork — New Fad Decrees Hostess Shall Bring Forth Proper Implement with Each Course

Here’s help at last for the poor dinner guest who always comes up at the end of the courses with one fork too many or a spoon too few. Here’s relief from those who cross-examine in the art of eating in attempts to sell “Which Fork and When” in 12 volumes with easy illustrations. It is one of society’s latest fads. Dame Grundy has decreed: That henceforth dinner tables shall be set with linen and china —but with no silver; that there shall be no puzzle for the guests—there shall be no silver to choose from. That each individual piece of silver will be brought to the diners with the dish to which it belongs. 

The movement is not just for the relief of the helpless guest, but it is the latest thing in society. The smartest dinners of late were served without a sign of silver on the table when the guests were seated. Already where Dame Grundy reigns supreme, it is considered without style to set dinner tables with silver. The new fad has come as a bright light of hope to the thousands of people whose formal dinner parties have too often been ruined by the use of the wrong fork or spoon. It is welcomed by the mere man who presides at less formal affairs and is afraid to meet his wife’s eyes for fear that he is serving potatoes with a tomato spoon or asparagus with a pie fork. Indeed—many problems have been solved by the fad. 

Dame Grundy has remembered the dinner guest who, many a time, has complimented herself upon her artful eating and then finds at the end of the courses that she has overlooked a puzzler of a funny looking spoon. There is consideration also for those fair diners who habitually pause for the hostess to single out and lead-off with the right fork, and of course, must sip much un-wanted water. No longer will the diner have to solve the what, why, where, when and how of the foreign-looking thing which is half-fork and half jelly spoon. No longer will the guest have cause to slip a valuable piece of silver into an inner pocket and carry it away just because he picked it up, discovered his mistake, and could not get rid of it any other way. 

The timid diner can now draw a deep breath of relief, for henceforth when peas are served they will be accompanied by the “one and only” designed for the consumption of peas. It is predicted in society circles that dinner parties will become more popular under the new silverless regime. At any rate the fad has come and guests are no longer startled on entering the dining room and finding nothing but fingers to eat with.—Fresno Herald, 1919

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

Etiquette and Eating from Knives

A 19th century fork and knife set, featuring steel tines on the fork and a wide, dull and flat steel knife blade. Many who were unfamiliar with utensils and their expected dining usage, found this type of knife blade ideal for not just cutting with, but eating from.

Unlike contemporary table knives, those of the 18th and 19th century had dull and wide, flat blades. Usually they were steel. Many who were unfamiliar with utensils and their expected dining usage, found the knives ideal for not just cutting with, but for eating from. By the mid-1800’s, etiquette books encouraged diners to stop the practice of eating their food from their knives. As etiquette books are often ignored, small numbers of several generations continued the practice. 

A most popular food with which to show off one’s knife dining skills was peas. Many people practiced lining peas carefully upon a steel knife blade, to “pour” into their mouths, much to the chagrin of spouses and parents. A few uncouth, but industrious people even invented and designed special, “pea knives.” It took, as gentle reminders, repeated news and magazine articles over the years to finally get the practice all but abandoned. Two such articles are below:

Eating With a Knife is Not Insanity

LOS ANGELES, Mar. 4 (AP)—Eating with a knife is not insanity. Mrs. Kathryn Brown contended it was, in contesting the will of her sister, Mrs. Margaret Dillon, who left her $25,000 estate to her 12-year-old grand niece, Margaret Keating, of New York. Mrs. Brown testified Mrs. Dillon, although well reared, had been eating with a knife and suffered from a delusion that she was an experienced driver, despite the fact that she owned no car. A superior court jury yesterday found Mrs. Dillon was not insane and upheld the terms of her will. — San Pedro Pilot News, 1931

Gossip of Railwayman

Frederick Shoup of the Passenger Department of the Southern Pacific is a man of many parts. He is not only said to be good looking, but has so persuasive a tongue that it would enable him to sell gold bricks, even to Hetty Green. “Etiquette and table manners are all based on common sense,” remarked Frederick to Charles Burkhalter and John Ross, with whom he was dining at Fresno. “For instance, the reason why a man does not eat with his knife is because he is afraid of cutting his lips.”  “Well, that is true,” replied Burkhalter, as he lifted the duck on which Shoup was feasting from Fred’s plate to his own.  “You see how simple it is.” Shoup rambled on, “Why don't we use a fork for our, soup? Why? Because the fork I could not scoop up enough of the soup.” “Well that is an idea,” observed John Ross, the great chocolate expert, as he appropriated Fred’s vegetables. “Everything is based on common sense,” continued the orator. “Why do we have napkins?” “Why?” asked Burkhalter, as he emptied Fred’s pint of Chianti. “To remove the stains of food from our fingers and mouths.” “Well, are you through talking?” said Burkhalter. “It is time to get to work.” “Work,” shouted Shoup, “why, man, I have had nothing to eat.” — San Francisco Call, 1908

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

Spoons for the Gilded Age

All still usable for dining and entertaining elegantly with foods today... From left to right are: 

1. An ice cream spoon —for your favorite chocolate or vanilla
2.  An orange spoon— great for eating melon served in the rind 
3. A sauce spoon —elegantly add just that right amount from the sauce served “on the side”
4. An ice cream, spoon-fork “spork” —ideal for ice creams with large pieces of fruit or other delights
5. A confection spoon— use it to sprinkle sugar or cinnamon onto berries or toast
6. A jelly spoon— not just jellies, but use it for preserves or honey, too
7. A horseradish spoon— excellent for serving mayonnaise and other creamy condiments 
8. A caviar spoon— ideal for caviar, caviar and even, caviar. 

The name “1847 Rogers Bros.” is misleading. The page above shows spoons from an 1880’s salesman’s catalog.

Entertaining in Another Era 

The plethora of flatware designs, and variety of foods they were designed for, in the Victorian and Edwardian eras offered elegant and correct ways to outdo, or impress one’s neighbors at the dining table. They also helped reflect lighting in the room and created a more luminous dining experience in the later days of candlelight and gaslight dining, as well as the early days of electricity.

Many foods that only the wealthy could afford to serve, and serve properly in style, were those which needed refrigeration or were quickly perishable. Spoons, like these antiques pictured, were offered in abundance in the later 1800's and early 1900's. They had a variety of uses. The spoons which feature a gold layer (or vermeil “gilding”), were designed that way, to protect the silver from corrosive foods such as salt or citric acid. The one which is made entirely 

of horn, was made for a very salty food— caviar. 

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

Table Silver Etiquette

Flatware choices, whether in sterling silver, silver plate or stainless, reflect and is an extension of one’s personality. Above is a place setting using an eclectic “Hotel Pattern” flatware set, made up from the most popular patterns from Europe’s grand hotels in the early 1900’s. 

Every home, no matter how modest or how young, can enjoy the luxury and warmth of silver sparkling and glowing every room, making every occasion come alive with its brilliance, and treating every guest with distinction. That's the vision everyone has of entertaining in their dream home. 

The important facts about choosing silver for entertaining are:

• What silver is perfect for the ones who’ll be using it, why, and how one can discover it among the wide and varied selection of the finest silver crafted today or antiques from yesterday. 
• A silver pattern is an extension of one’s personality and all the things he or she favors. Properly chosen, it will remain dear, and grow dearer, with time and use. It will be the focal point of the table-setting and it can be added to as needs demand. 
• Sterling flatware, because of its long lasting beauty and years of practical service, is an acquisition for one’s home, and a personal gift that’s beyond price. Its heirloom potential is a built-in plus, the extraordinary gift that comes with sterling flatware besides its unfailing everyday usefulness.  “The Southern Belle Primer, Or why Princess Margaret will never be a Kappa Kappa Gamma” is by Maryln Schwartz. A highlight of the book is the silver zodiac and the 12 sterling silver patterns most chosen by “Southern Belles” Projecting into one’s future, eight place settings are the usual requirement for a family. Twelve place settings will be the ultimate goal. 

A place setting may have six, five, four or three pieces:

• The three-piece place setting is one’s usual, delightful introduction to one’s very own silver and has a place knife, fork and spoon. 
• Four-piece place settings add a salad fork. 
• The five-piece place setting has knife, fork, salad fork, soup spoon and teaspoon. 
• The standard place setting has six pieces: knife, fork, salad fork, soup spoon, teaspoon and butter spreader. 
• Every host or hostess should know that place settings have their own distinctive way of gracing a table. Their etiquette is concerned with making the diner more comfortable and at his ease: and that should be the cardinal rule of every table one sets. 

Simply done: 

• Silver is arranged in the order of its use, with the pieces to be used first, farthest from the plate. 
• All forks, except cocktail forks, belong on the left. The cocktail fork goes on the right, always. 
• All knives belong on the right, too except the butter spreader and along with the knives, all spoons to be used, with the exception of the dessert spoons. 
• Dessert silver is brought to the table with dessert. Spoons for tea or coffee are placed on the saucer with the cup and brought to table with the cup and saucer. 
• The entire place setting is arranged about an inch from the edge of the table, both for comfort and appearance sake. 

– Adapted from an article in the San Bernardino Sun, 1971

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

Tea and Dining in Early America

This Steiff sterling, Williamsburg Virginia, reproduction of a “sucket” fork and spoon which features a “rat tail” on top of the back of the spoon’s bowl. Early American Silver had a style all its own. A “rat tail” was a design component which reinforced the bowl of the spoon to the handle.– “Teaspoons were not of a standard size. Often, they were small and of a proportion which allowed them to be laid across the tops of the small handleless cup, as an indication that no more tea was desired. That used to be the etiquette.”

The “Nancy Page” club was almost ready to close its season. They still had some of the fittings of the early American home to study. Today they were interested in silver. First they noted the exquisite texture of the old silver. This came from the fact that it was worked entirely by hand. The hand process kept in a certain life of the silver which heavy rollers of modern usage take out. The spoons made before 1730 or thereabouts had the characteristic “rat tail” a short distance down the back of the bowl, but this extended down further in later years, say 1750. 

The crest or initials were usually engraved on the back of the handle. The bowl of the spoon became less elliptical in the later years. Teaspoons were not of a standard size. Often, they were small and of a proportion which allowed them to be laid across the tops of the small handleless cup, as an indication that no more tea was desired. That used to be the etiquette.

Cream pitchers changed their shapes according to the contours of the other furnishings of the home. Just as the present angular age with its flat surfaces and planes has brought in new silver as well as furniture, so that age with its swelling bulbous contour in decoration, affected the silver. Sometimes the cream pitchers were danity, three-legged affairs like the one shown. This dates back to about 1790. Earlier in point of time when contours were more substantial, we get a tea pot similar to the one shown. These dated back about 1700. It has the domed top of the period and used an ebony handle to make it easier for a hostess to handle the pot filled with hot tea. – Florence LaGanke as “Nancy Page” for the San Pedro Pilot, 1929

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

Etiquette for Caviar

Antique flatware for caviar: a rare, individual, sterling caviar spade in the Versailles flatware pattern, a bone caviar spoon, and a sterling handled, horn bowled, caviar server 
~ The flavor of caviar is often referred to as an acquired taste, but those who enjoy it say it is "an intense explosion of complex flavors." Caviar is a delicacy. It is the unfertilized eggs (roe) of sturgeon brined with a salt solution. The brining solution contributes a little to the overall palate, but caviar enthusiasts often savor the luxurious texture and indescribably rich taste of the caviar berries themselves. - Photo by Maura J. Graber, from “Reaching for the Right Fork”

The eating of caviar has its own set of rituals. Caviar is a "finger food" when eaten as an hors d'oeuvre, and served on toast points, or thin, round slices of bread- usually dry, since good in quality caviar, there should be enough fat in the eggs to moisten the bread.  Purists do not alter the flavor of the caviar with such garnishes as sour cream, chopped egg or onion. As with most finger foods, caviar on toast points, crackers or other small sliced breads, should be eaten in one or two bites.

The following are some considerations:

Caviar should be served from a non-metal spoon. Caviar spoons are widely available in bone, horn, tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl. Any metals, including silver, will impart a metallic flavor to the granules. 

Depending on the grade of caviar, the flavor of lesser grades can be enhanced with a dab of fresh lemon juice. 

If you don't have a caviar server, place the caviar in a small glass or porcelain bowl, inside of a larger bowl filled with crushed ice. Make sure that the water does not enter the caviar bowl as the ice melts. 

If serving caviar on crackers, use bland, unsalted crackers.

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

Etiquette's Knife for Peas

The knife and fork combination utensil on left, and the spatulate knife, at right,  some say are lacking the beauty of the modern knife of sterling with which they are compared.

Eating Peas with a Knife 
There Was a Day, Long Before Sterling Silver and Etiquette Books, When the Practice Was Condoned

LONG before the days of books on etiquette and elaborate sterling silver services—in the 15th century to be exact—there was a curiously constructed knife which was recommended "for the eatinge of pease and jelleys.” It had a broad or spatulate end opposite the cutting edge and was considered excellent form in the days when the first requirement of politeness was to “smack thy lips resoundingly if thou would show due appreciation to thy host.”

The evolution of knives, their origin as implements of the hunt to the graceful sterling dining utensils of today, shows several interesting variations. Thus, a point was reached in the development when a set of three knives set in a scabbard was a smart thing for the young man about Venice. These knives, of steel and sterling silver performed successively the three functions of slaughtering, cutting up and conveying the meat to the mouth.

As city life developed and the diner became more remote from his food in its natural condition, the scabbard came to contain only one knife, or a knife and spoon. A 17th century novelty was the combination knife and fork which, though doubtless of enormity, must have required marvelous skill in manipulating. —Madera Tribune, 1928

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