Basic Flatware for the Home

More unusual servers for foods, like those pictured above for bacon and waffles (considered necessities in the American Gilded Age), are not on Patricia Easterbrook Roberts’ list. Roberts was writing mainly of utensils that were needed to set a complete table in the mid-20th century.

FLATWARE

LARGE FORK. Usually called a dinner fork it is used for lunch and dinner when meat is served. Also used with tablespoon for serving.

LARGE KNIFE. Companion piece to large fork.

SMALLER FORK AND KNIFE. Used for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, except for the meat course. This fork may be used for dessert, and, with a dessert spoon, is more commonly used in England than in America. It may be used for salad, and in some services it is made specially for this course. This size of fork and knife is used for the fish course when there are no fish knives and forks.

*FISH KNIFE AND FORK. Used mostly in Europe and from old services. Americans use the small fork and knife for fish today.

SOUP SPOON. Used for all soups, desserts, cereal, and ice cream. The round bowl is most commonly used here in America, the egg-shaped bowl in Europe. It is between the tea- spoon and the tablespoon in size. Both shapes may used as small serving pieces.

TEASPOON. Used for tea, regular coffee cups, fruit and dessert in sherbet glasses, and for grapefruit (unless you have the pointed spoon specially designed for this fruit). 

COFFEE SPOON. Used for small, after-dinner coffee service, and as a baby's feeding spoon. 

DESSERT SPOON. Used with the small fork for dessert. Also used for soup and cereal.

TABLESPOON. Used mainly for serving vegetables, salads, berries, fruits, and desserts. 

INDIVIDUAL SALAD FORK. Used for salad, pies, and pastries. American designs have one wide tine for cutting greens.

BUTTER KNIFE. For individual use on the bread-and-butter plate for butter, jam and jellies, etc. Also for hors d'oeuvres and cheeses.

OYSTER FORK. Small three-pronged fork designed for eating oysters, clams, or any cold shellfish cocktail.

FRUIT KNIFE AND FORK. Mostly used in Europe when serving fruit at the end of a meal.

ICED-BEVERAGE SPOON. With its long slender handle it is needed for iced tea, iced coffee, fruit drinks, milk shakes, and parfaits. It is also used for mixing highballs.

SALT SPOON. The tiniest spoon made, for open salt cellars on formal tables. 

LADLES. In various sizes for soup, gravy, sauces, and punch. 

CARVING SETS. Large for roast meats, smaller for steaks. 

SALAD SET. Salad-bowl servers.

*This is actually incorrect. Families in England and Europe with “old money” and large sets of inherited silver passed down through generations, had used 2 forks to eat fish with at the table. Old British and European titled families did NOT traditionally use the newly created fish knife and fork sets at their tables. “New money” European families, like Americans with new wealth, purchased “fish sets” for their tables and entertaining.

— By Patricia Easterbrook Roberts, 1961

 🍽️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