Use of Fork an Index to Breeding

A screenshot of a dining scene in the “Cranford” series shows a young woman eating with her knife after her host models the behavior himself. The dining scene is set in 1840 England. – “It is only within the last half century that the practice of eating with forks has prevailed; yet nowadays it would be regarded almost as an insult to one’s readers even to mention the fact that the knife should never be put in the mouth.”

“It is the manner which is better than all.” 

-Sir Phillip Sidney

Many persons have an idea that it is consistent with good table manners to assist the fork with a small piece of bread held in the left hand. Of course, if enough well bred persons though do so and acted accordingly it would be correct, for after all, good manners are nothing in the world but the present usage of those persons who form what, for lack of a letter term, we call the “better class.” 

This does not mean the wealthier people or the people who claim most aristocratic ancestry; but it does mean the people who take life seriously enough and care enough for their neighbors and for themselves to wish to conduct themselves in the way that will be most congenial and will be most conductive to their own success and happiness. So, although some careful persons use bread to help push food on the fork, the consensus of opinion seems to be unfavorable to the practice. As one recent authority on table manners puts it; “The resort to the bit of bread as a pusher is merely childish.”

Worse than childish is the habit of loading the fork with the knife: at least it is contrary to the best American usage. Children ought to be taught very early the knack of managing their fork, without the assistance of fingers, fork or knife. It is not easy, but to eat with chopsticks must be considerably more difficult, and very young Japanese children learn to be skillful with those implements. 

It might be said that the proper use of the fork is as much a test of the good manners of the American as the ability to use chopsticks is of the Asian. But the fork has been used as an eating implement only in comparatively recent times. The Asians were facile with chopsticks hundreds of years , ago, when the only forks in our homes were those employed in the kitchen for lifting meat in cooking. It is only within the last half century that the practice of eating with forks has prevailed; yet nowadays it would be regarded almost as an insult to one’s readers even to mention the fact that the knife should never be put in the mouth. 

About thirty-five years ago, Alfred Ayres, writing in a little handbook of good manners, warns his readers not to be inconsiderate of the feelings of others in this matter of eating with the fork. He tells his readers that if they happen to be dining at a home where only the old fashioned steel forks are used, that they should eat with their knives, as others do. “Do not let it be seen,” he says, “that you have any objection to doing so, nor let it be known that you ever do otherwise. He that advised us to do in Rome as the Romans do was a true gentleman.” – Mary Marshall Duffee, 1917

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Fork History: From France to the U.S.

An individual Gorham, Chantilly pattern “bird set” for carving duck, quail or Cornish game hen-sized, individual birds. – Writing in Harper's New Monthly Magazine in 1868, James Parton explained: “From spoons, Jabez Gorham advanced to fruit knives, butter knives, thimbles, napkin rings and combs– the only articles commonly made by American silversmiths thirty years ago. Silver forks were then scarcely known in the United States. They had been an article of luxury among the nobility of France for a century or more, and had been introduced from that country into England; but in the United States, as recently as 1835, their use was confined to persons who possessed considerable wealth.

When Charles Lutwidge Dodson, under his pseudonym of Lewis Carroll, wrote the line, "They pursued it with forks and hope," he attributed it to the mild-mannered baker who was hunting the Snark to serve with greens. He might well have used the same line to describe the plight of many guests at contemporary Victorian dinners, where stern, social orthodoxy decreed that "a knife or spoon is never used when a fork will suffice." Judged by the controversy that raged through the press of the time, many of the guests relied more on hope than on the implement as they pursued ice cream, berries, and other elusive foods with the correct but ill-adapted fork.

But the arbiters of fashion were not alone responsible for the changing patterns of etiquette that brought a bewildering array of forks and spoons and knives to the late Victorian table; changing patterns of eating and entertaining, rapidly altering economic and social conditions, even an increasing abundance and availability of many foods, contributed to the new concept of the art of dining.

At the beginning of the Victorian period, silver services were comparatively simple, as was serving at the table. In the section devoted to "Furniture of the Table" in The American Chesterfield, published in 1828 in Philadelphia by John Grigg, the following extract describes table setting in a fashionable house:

• Every person at table should be provided with knife and fork, plate, bread, etc… and, before every meat dish, a carving knife, fork and spoon; and a spoon before every dish of vegetables. 
• At the corners of the table, spoons, a salt cellar, and small spoon for the salt; and, if pickles are there placed, a small knife and fork. 
• If the table is large, the furniture of the corners should likewise be placed at short and convenient intervals. It has lately become common, in our Atlantic towns, and particularly at tables where light wines are used with water as a long drink, to place, at convenient distances around the table, bottles of Sauterne, Claret or other light wine (the corks slightly drawn and inserted slightly in the bottle) and goblets of water. 
• This is found, by experience, to be an admirable arrangement for convenience, and gives the waiters more time to attend, among other duties, to the frequent changes of plates which modern refinement has introduced.
• On the sideboard should be arranged, in order, all those articles of furniture which are necessary for the tableThese are, the great supplies of knives and forks, plates of different sizes, spoons, bread, etc…, etc… but, in a particular manner, the castors. 
• These should always consist of five bottles, at least; viz; cayenne pepper, black pepper, mustard, vinegar and sweet oil. Let the castors be filled -not half filled-with condiments of good quality, that is, the sweet oil not rancid, nor the vinegar sweet, nor the pepper in grains like hailstones, nor the mustard stale; and one word more, madame, before we dismiss the castors-a little spoon for the mustard, though it be of wood-and-and-remember the salt spoons.

After a word of caution regarding industry among servants, and a discussion of the rules of waiting, The American Chesterfield continues:

• If there is soup for dinner, according to the number of the company, lay each person a flat plate, and a soup plate over it; a napkin, fork, knife and spoon; and to place the chairs. If there is no soup, the soup plate may be omitted.

There can be no doubt that The American Chesterfield was directed toward the sons of American families of established wealth and position; that is made clear by the references to forks in the table settings. Writing in Harper's New Monthly Magazine in 1868, James Parton explained:

“From spoons, Jabez Gorham advanced to fruit knives, butter knives, thimbles, napkin rings and combs– the only articles commonly made by American silversmiths thirty years ago. Silver forks were then scarcely known in the United States. They had been an article of luxury among the nobility of France for a century or more, and had been introduced from that country into England; but in the United States, as recently as 1835, their use was confined to persons who possessed considerable wealth. They were not common at that time in any but the best hotels, and not one person in ten had ever seen them used.” — American Silver Flatware… 1837-1910, Noel D. Turner

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Etiquette and the Introduction of Forks

The earliest forks had only 2 tines. The combination fork and spoon on the far right is called a “Sucket.” Suckets were from the Georgian era and used to eat sticky fruits in syrup and such.

Perhaps the most significant development in culinary art and etiquette came at the beginning of the 17th century with the introduction of the fork into English society. More than anything else, the fork promoted a greater degree of cleanliness at the table: making choicer table linen, more handsome napkin arrangements and finer dining clothes possible for the wealthy. Together, technological advancements in English dining had sparked a cultural revolution. 

People started to define themselves through the artistry of their table settings. Culinary art advanced to higher standards: improving manners by allowing diners to eat “respectably”. New meals and drinking practices were even invented in the 18th Century specifically as occasions in which to demonstrate proper dining etiquette: afternoon tea being, perhaps, the most notable.— From silver groves.co.uk

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Traveling Utensils and Fork History

Photo of a retractable travel spoon bowl with the fork attached, alongside a photo of the back of the spoon bowl, sitting next to the two-tined fork which fits inside it to make a spoon. Presumed age is any time from the mid-1500’s to early 1700’s

Around the year 1400, when people carried their eating utensils with them, a folding silver spoon was made to fit the pocket. Later a fork was added. Even the wealthy did not provide these utensils; only royalty seemed to have had enough for their feasts and banquets.

Everyone carried his knife in a scabbard fastened to his belt, to use at mealtime and on any other occasion when a knife was needed. Those who could not afford silver used spoons, knives, and forks of pewter. Copper and brass spoons were used, too, by persons of limited means, although copper soon lost favor due to its tendency to rapid oxidation. 

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in the Tudor period, it was fashionable to give a christening gift of twelve spoons, each adorned with a miniature statue in silver of one of the twelve apostles. Sometimes a “Master” spoon bearing the figure of Christ was included. These sets are exceedingly rare today. Our “pitcher spoon” originated in Elizabethan days, when great starched ruffles were worn around the neck, making long-handled spoons a necessity.

In Italy, in the 1500s, knives and forks generally appeared on the tables of the cultured, but it was another century before they were popular in France and England. At one time in England it was considered effeminate to use a fork and it took several decades for the people other than the upper classes to adopt it. The clergy even protested its use “as a substitute for God-given fingers.”

In America, too, forks were freakish novelties: when the first fork was imported by Governor Winthrop in 1633, people thought it comical. They could not see any need for it, since most of their meats were cut up and cooked in ragouts and stews. Recipes of the time called for meat to be “y-mynced, hewed on a gobbet, hacked, diced and skerned.” Two-pronged forks to spear food were the most commonly used at first, but early models were made with three and four prongs too.— From “The Book of Old Silver,” by Seymour B. Wyler, 1937

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Etiquette and Traveling with Utensils

What Have We Here? — A Regency Era, mother of pearl handled, folding pocket or travel fork, by Aaron Hatfield, in 1818 — Until the early part of the eighteenth century, a gentleman who traveled carried a knife and fork of his own, as the inns were not likely to have them.  

The earliest forks made were for the most part of iron and steel, with a few in silver owned by families of great wealth. Until the early part of the eighteenth century, a gentleman who traveled carried a knife and fork of his own, as the inns were not likely to have them. Visitors to England were continually criticizing the lack of forks, as they thought the English custom most unsanitary. — From “The Book of Old Silver,” by Seymour B. Wyler, 1970

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The Luxury and Etiquette of Utensils

During the middle ages, records show man using a knife for dining. The first table knife was designed with a flat, broad blade opposite the cutting edge. The flat part was recommended “for eating of peas and jelly.” It has been said that “he who dined out during the stirring days of the fifteenth century brought his own eating utensils with him.” One of the rules of etiquette the day was to “smack thy lips resoundingly if thou wouldst show due appreciation to thine host.” –Antique utensils and reproduction 18th century glassware work well when mixed with black and white transfer-ware on a rustic farm table. 

Eating Utensils for Dining – History is Revealing

It is hard to believe that the everyday convenience of knife, fork, and spoon were ever a luxury enjoyed only by the very rich and noble. In the fifteenth century man ate with his fingers most of the time, aided only by a homemade spoon. The first spoons, history tells us, were shells. Where shells were not available in the inland countries, spoons of a sort were cut from wood. Eventually, to make the shell a little easier to manage, handles of wood and bone were attached to the cup-shaped base. In excavations of ancient ruins relics of spoons of bone and ivory have been found. In this way, we are able to trace the history of the first designs and usage of eating utensils.

It is interesting to note that in the beginning people carried their own spoons. Knives made of flintstone were usually carried in a scabbard at the belt. But the knife was not generally brought to the table for the purpose of dismembering or slicing. It was used mainly for hunting. A metal knife was not developed until many years later. In areas where copper, silver, bronze, or gold were found, those who could afford it had spoons and knives fashioned of these precious metals. The kind of material a man’s knife was made of often was a clue to his station and wealth.

Spoons were sometimes designed so that they could fold and were more easily carried. In England, spoons of copper, pewter, or brass were used by people of limited means as early as the sixteenth century. During the reign of the Tudors and Stuarts, a fashionable gift at Christmas time was an Apostle spoon. To own a collection of the twelve Apostles was considered a luxury that few Englishmen could afford. A thirteenth “Master” spoon was one fashioned after the figure of Christ, a coveted possession.

There was not too much of a problem about packing the family flatware when early settlers came to America. A “personal spoon” is all a man or woman needed.

During the middle ages, records show man using a knife for dining. The first table knife was designed with a flat, broad blade opposite the cutting edge. The flat part was recommended “for eating of peas and jelly.” It has been said that “he who dined out during the stirring days of the fifteenth century brought his own eating utensils with him.” One of the rules of etiquette the day was to “smack thy lips resoundingly if thou wouldst show due appreciation to thine host.”

The fork was a later introduction after the knife and spoon. At first forks were used just for serving. But we can imagine that the earliest forks were those cut of sticks and used to hold meat over a fire for roasting. Forks were not a table implement until the sixteenth century.

Italy is accredited with being the first country where forks were used. However, it was only the nobility and upper classes who enjoyed this additional eating utensil. Historians do not credit the Italians with the invention of the fork. It was supposed to have been brought to Italy by visitors from the Byzantine Empire.

Even though the fork was very useful as an eating assistant, it was not accepted by the middle classes, because they regarded its use as something effeminate. It took about ten or twenty years after the introduction of the fork for its use to become generally accepted. In spite of slow means of transportation, the idea finally became widespread. Forks were not used in England until the seventeenth century. This was true possibly because the clergy would not approve the use of forks. They claimed it a sacrilege and that man should use his fingers “as God intended.” In spite of these protests, however, the fork was too useful to be given up once it became generally known.

Italy, the seat of culture and art, produced forks of great artistry and beauty. The first ones were designed with two, three, or four prongs, but the two pronged fork was the most popular. People were still carrying eating utensils in a scabbard at the waist when the fork was introduced. Sometimes both fork and spoon were designed with one handle, and often the spoon was designed so that it folded as a part of the fork.

When a man could not afford silver eating utensils he sometimes had them fashioned of pewter, copper, or bronze. Shell, bone, and wood had to be good enough for the very poor.

— From Patricia Kroh’s 1966 book, “Contemporary Table Settings” 

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

The New Tiffany Table Settings

“The New Tiffany Table Settings” of 1981 is filled with simple to elegant tables and table settings, created by some of the most successful hosts and hostesses of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Below is the book’s foreword.

The history of modern table setting opened on a momentous day in 1633 when Charles I of England declared once and for all that “it is decent to use a fork.” Since then the table's arts have prospered while all manner of refinements and curiosities have been seen, some practical, some stylish, some simply preposterous.

Tables are as much as ever stages that we set for action, miniature theaters of social behavior where a good percentage of every life is played out. There love blossoms or withers, careers are made or undone, fortunes are founded or squandered. The table is a place for enjoyment, for wit, for discovery, for celebration, for art, for intrigue. There we set out props that forecast the order of events and that imply whatever we desire from social exchange.

Anyone can set a table, and anyone can set it well with whatever means are available, provided that imagination and vitality are both brought to the task. The success of a table setting depends not on financial considerations but on having a point of view, on having a personal style rather than timidly depending on bland and faceless conventionalities.

In the pages that follow, there are table settings done at the request of Tiffany & Co. by some seventy-five well-known personalities of society, entertainment, the arts, business, and design. They have brought to their settings the same flair and authority that have brought them such remarkable success in the world. Each setting is in a way the self-portrait of its author. There are no answers given to the question of how to set a table, but the collective answer is: “Do what you want, and do your best.”

In 1808 the great French authority on entertaining Alexandre Balthasar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière published his famed Manuel des Amphitryons. In it he exhorted the good host or hostess not to hold back or to be ashamed of originality and generosity, and his advice remains valid: “Don't be afraid to put your fortune in evidence and do honor to it; do nothing to pardon its sources as there is no more honorable way to use it than to offer food.” — Foreword from “The New Tiffany Table Settings,”1981

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Earliest Hallmarked 17th C. Fork

Customs of Bygone Age

                                                           

Above ~2 styles of marrow scoops – By the mid-17th century one etiquette book author advised people stop handling or “mouthing” bones, but to remove bone marrow to eat, with a knife. Within time, marrow scoops and spoons became very popular, as bone marrow was considered a health food.  "Suck no bones… Take them not with two hands… Gnaw them not… Knock no bones upon thy bread, or trencher, to get out the marrow of them, but get out the marrow with a knife… To speake better… it is not fit to handle bones, and much lesse to mouth them. Make not use of a knife to breake bones…also breake them not with thy teeth, or other thing, but let them alone."  From Youth's Behaviour, by Francis Hawkins, 1646

Letters and other documents dealing with manners and customs of daily life in the 17th century which came to light recently, tend to show that it was customary in those days for “persons of quality” to have sets of their own spoons, knives and forks, which they took with them when invited out.

These papers are of particular interest just at this time, to collectors of antiques in connection with an addition made recently to the British Museum. This was the earliest hallmarked table fork known, engraved with the crest of Manners and Montague 1632. About the same time a silver spoon of identical hallmark and crest was taken to Haddon Hall.

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