A Bone Egg Spoon?

While it’s true that silver spoons could leave a metallic taste in the mouth when mixed with eggs, there was always a gilded option. These two gilded sterling eggs spoons had been available for many years, however, they were very pricey. Bone egg spoons, on the other hand, at eight cents each were quite reasonable for the time period. — Pictured above are two European egg toppers, or egg cutters, an Ivy pattern, Gorham gilded sterling egg spoon, a Whiting sterling egg spoon with a gilded, engraved bowl in the Lily of the Valley pattern and a lovely, Herend egg cup. 

I am indebted to a Scotch friend for something that has become well-nigh indispensable to me-my EGG-SPOON. It is made of bone and was brought to me from Scotland. Its advantages are, first, that one gets no taste of metal in eating eggs, as is the case with a silver spoon; second, that there is no discolored silver to be cleaned afterward. Since it was given to me, I have bought others for my family at one of the New York department stores for eight cents each, so they are within the reach of anyone who is interested. - B. F. S., New Jersey in Good Housekeeping, 1912

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

Gilded Age Dining: Some Rules

The Gilded Age was a high point in the history of fine dining and the flatware and serving pieces of the era were often lavish expressions of the era. Above is a serving set in gilded sterling by George W. Shiebler & Co.

Etiquette has laid down several rules about eating particular kinds of food. Soup, for instance, should be called for only once, and eaten from the side of a spoon. If oyster crackers are passed with the soup, place them at the left side of your plate on the table cloth, and hold one in your left hand as you eat. But if bread is served, break off a piece as you wish it, with the left hand. Both the bread and crackers should be eaten without butter.

A little said in regard to the position at table may not be amiss. Never eat lounging back in your chair; though, while the different courses are being removed, it is entirely allowable to sit back in the chair. The elbows should not, at any time, be allowed to rest on the table.

Convey the food the entire distance to the mouth. Some people have a ludicrous habit of opening their mouths the moment they raise the food from their plates; then when the food is within several inches of its destination, their heads suddenly come forward with a jerk, and the food is snatched from sight. Quick motions and gestures are seldom graceful, and never so at a table. Then is the time, most assuredly, to “let your moderation be known to all men;” moderation in movement as well as in eating and drinking.

Be always attentive to the wants of others, and see that your neighbor is provided with whatever he may need within your reach. Remember the golden rule can be applied precisely as well during the meal time as in our intercourse with our fellow. beings.– Penman’s Art Journal, 1888

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

Gilded Age Dining Requisites

The Gilded Age table often required numerous utensils for dining and serving. A souvenir spoon from Baltimore, featuring a turtle, or terrapin, is on the far left of this assortment – The fancy for collecting “souvenir”spoons, one at a time, suggests a way to secure a valuable lot of spoons with out feeling the burden of the expense. Yet, on the other hand, these spoons are much more expensive than equally good plain silver, the extra price being paid for the “idea;” but the expenditure is worth while to those who value historical associations.

China, Glassware, Cutlery, Silverware, etc... 

Chinaware for the dinner service should be of good quality. Fashions in china decoration are not fixed; the fancy of the hour is constantly changing, but a matched set is eminently proper for the dinner table, leaving the “harlequin” china for luncheons and teas. In the latter style, the aim is to have no two pieces alike in decoration, or at least, to permit an unlimited variety; a fashion that is very convenient when large quantities of dishes are liable to be needed. But for a dinner served in orderly sequence, the orderly correspondence of a handsome “set” seems more in keeping. But even with this, the harlequin idea may come in with the dessert; fruit plates, ice-cream sets, after-dinner coffees, etc., may display any number of fantasies in shape and coloring.

Artistic glassware is a very handsome feature of table furnishing. Carafes and goblets for water are always needed at dinner; wine glasses, possibly; and the serving of fruits and bon-bons gives opportunity to display the most brilliant cut-glass, or its comparatively inexpensive substitutes, which are scarcely less pretty in effect. Fine glass is infinitely more elegant than common plated-ware, and though more liable to breakage is less trouble to keep in order. The best dinner-knife is of steel, of good quality, with handle of ivory, ebony, or silver. Silver plated knives are much used; they do not discolor so readily as steel, and are easily kept polished. They answer the purpose for luncheon, but they rarely have edge enough to be really serviceable at dinner or breakfast.

Many people who own solid silverware store it away in bank vaults and use its facsimile in quadruple plate, and thus escape the constant dread of a possible burglar. For the sense of security that it gives, one may value the finest quality of plated ware, but it should be inconspicuous in style and not too profuse in quantity, since its utility, rather than its commercial value, should be suggested. Any ostentation in the use of plated ware is vulgar. But one may take a pride and satisfaction in the possession of solid silver. Every ambitious housekeeper will devise ways of securing, little by little, if not all at once, a neat collection of solid spoons and forks.

The simplest table takes on dignity when graced with these “sterling” accompaniments. The fancy for collecting “souvenir”spoons, one at a time, suggests a way to secure a valuable lot of spoons with out feeling the burden of the expense. Yet, on the other hand, these spoons are much more expensive than equally good plain silver, the extra price being paid other hand, these spoons are much more expensive than equally good plain silver, the extra price being paid for the “idea;” but the expenditure is worth while to those who value historical associations. One may find in the silver-basket salient reminders of all important epochs in our national life, a sort of primer of United States history, to say nothing of the innumerable “souvenirs” of Europe. Its subtle testimony to the intelligent taste of its owner gives the " souvenir collection its chief “touch of elegance.”

The towering “castor,” once the central glory of the dinner table, is out of style. The condiments are left on the sideboard, and handed from there in case any dish requires them, the supposition being that, as a rule, the several dishes are properly seasoned before they are served. Individual salt-cellars are placed on the table, and may be accompanied with salt spoons; if these are omitted, it is understood that the salt-cellar is emptied and refilled each time that it is used. On the family dinner-table the condiment line is not so severely drawn; vinegar in cut glass cruets, mustard in Satsuma pots, and individual “peppers”— in silver, china, or glass, and of quaint designs are convenient and allowable.

A table covered with white damask, overlaid with sparkling china and cut-glass, and reflecting the white light of polished silver, is a pretty but lifeless sight. Add one magic touch— the centre-piece of flowers and the crystallized beauty — wakes to organic life. In arranging the modern dinner-table, when the service is to be à la Russe, floral decorations are almost indispensable. Without something attractive for the eye to rest upon, the desert stretch of linen looks like the white ghost of famine mocking the feast.

The shape of the table, the available space, and the nature of the occasion decide the quantity and distribution of the flowers. It is a matter in which wide latitude is given to individual taste and ingenuity, original designs and odd conceits being always in order, subject only to the law of appropriateness.

For a square or extra wide table a large centre piece, either round or oblong, is usually chosen, with endless varieties in its component arrangement. It may be low and flat, like a floral mat, in the middle of the table, or it may be a lofty epergne, or an interlacing of delicate vine-wreathed arches, or a single basket of feathery maidenhair fern-—in fact, anything that is pretty and which the inspiration of the moment may suggest. —Agnes H. Morton, 1899

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