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

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

A Most Unusual Colonial Dinner

A reproduction, Williamsburg sterling Sucket fork and spoon, needed for eating a British Tudor Era and American Colonial treat known as “wet suckets” or just “Sucket.” Wet suckets were candied or gingered fruits and fruit peel – usually prepared with oranges or other citrus or seasonal fruits. These were served in a delightful sugary liquid syrup, made of honey and water. By the early 17th century, sugar and rosewater were used to make the syrup. It was proper to eat with the forked-end first, then switch to using the spoon-end to enjoy the syrup remaining in the dish.

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Host Continues a Dinner Party While His House Burns

There is a familiar saying that a lady should be mistress of herself, although china fall, but to be master of himself and his dinner-table while his house is in flames is a degree of self-control granted to few. Grace Ellery Channing, in her book, “The Sisters of a Saint,” tells of a certain gentleman of Colonial times who appears to have been endowed with even that measure of Puritan self-repression.

The Royal Commissioners, then In Boston, were bidden to a dinner on Christmas eve at the stately Bristol residence of John Wentworth, a man of great natural parts and of a noble. and lofty bearing. The table, set forth with old plate and damask, was loaded with good cheer of all kinds. The host gave the customary signal for the dinner to be served in the words:

“Friends, you see your dinner!” As the visitors’ lips opened to make the response demanded by etiquette, a servant rushed in with the announcement that the house was on fire. Sternly bidding the startled guests to sit down, John Wentworth commanded the servants to take out the tables and set them upon the lawn; then the chairs were also removed.

“The air will be keen outside. Bring hither the wraps,” said John Wentworth. But the flames had already consumed them. “Bring whatever you can find, then!” and the servants returned with their arms heaped with curtains and table-cloths, and these strange wraps were hastily donned by the company.

“To the tables,” commanded Wentworth, and at the word the panic-stricken guests trooped forth from the now blazing house and seated themselves about the table upon the wintry lawn. The host repeated the greeting. “And a very good dinner we see!” was the tremulous response. 

In vain the guests essayed nervously to eat and drink; fitful attempts at gayety died away in the ever-increasing roar of flames; but Wentworth kept up an easy flow of conversation, pressing upon his guests the various dainties with all the concern of a man who had naught weightier upon his mind.

Now and again the sound of a falling beam would be echoed by a falling glass from some shaking hand. As the last glass shivered to the ground it was answered by a dull crash; the last wall of the house sank and fell. Wentworth did not turn his head.– Sausalito News, 1899

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

17th C. Table Etiquette

Another innovation was the so called ‘sucket fork’ a spoon and fork combination for use with ‘wet’ or ‘dry’ sweetmeats. The suckets would have been at the individual places— Sweetmeats or Dessert Service Layout, c.1670 Photograph Jeremy Phillips for Fairfax House, York

Improvements in table layout at this time included the idea of raising some of the food onto stands. This gave the opportunity to place extra dishes on the table and created a more sumptuous and three-dimensional concept of presentation. Large footed salvers of this type were often embossed on the broad rim with repoussé decoration of fruit and flowers. The Glossographia (1661) explains their early use “in giving beer or other liquid thing to save the carpit or cloathes from drips,” but they were soon put to other uses as stands for fruits, sweetmeats or even for glass crewetts. They were often fashioned by re-working old plate and it seems to be the case for this elaborate stand from Norwich Castle Museum.

Another innovation was the so called ‘sucket fork’ a spoon and fork combination for use with ‘wet’ or ‘dry’ sweetmeats. This set of five by John Smith, London, c. 1680 is a rare survival, as are the superb candlesticks by Jacob Bodendick, 1677. It was at the end of the meal that the candles were lit for the dessert course and whilst table candlesticks from the Restoration period survive in numbers, none are more majestic and innovative with their square fluted sockets, gadrooned square bases and cushion-shaped knops on baluster stems. – From “British Cutlery, An Illustrated History of Design, Evolution and Use,” York Civic Trust, 2001 

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

Furcifer, Forks and Coryat

Above– A “sucket” fork and spoon combination for eating gingered fruits and sticky foods. “It is true that we have instances of forks even so far back as the pagan Anglo-Saxon period, but they are often found coupled with spoons...” “The dinner was the largest and most ceremonious meal of the day. The hearty character of this meal is remarked by a foreign traveller in England, who published his “Mémoires et Observations” in French in 1698: “Les Anglois,” he tells us, “mangent beaucoup à diner; ils mangent à reprises, et remplissent le sac. Leur souper est leger. Gloutons à midi, fort sobres au soir.” – (The English, eat a lot at dinner; they eat on a regular basis, and fill the bag. Their supper is light. Wolverines at noon, very sober at night.)

In the sixteenth century, dinner still began with the same ceremonious washing of hands as formerly; and there was considerable ostentation in the ewers and basins used for this purpose. This custom was rendered more necessary by the circumstance that at table people of all ranks used their fingers for the purposes to which we now apply a fork. This article was not used in England for the purpose to which it is now applied, until the reign of James I. It is true that we have instances of forks even so far back as the pagan Anglo-Saxon period, but they are often found coupled with spoons, and on considering all the circumstances, I am led to the conviction that they were in no instance used for feeding, but merely for serving, as we still serve salad and other articles, taking them out of basin or dish with a fork and spoon. In fact, to those who have not been taught the use of it, a fork must necessarily be a very awkward and inconvenient instrument. We know that the use of forks came from Italy, the country to which England owed many of the new fashions of the beginning of the seventeenth century. It is curious to read Coryat’s account of the usage of forks at table as he first saw it in that country in the course of his travels. 

“I observed,” says he, “a custome in all those Italian cities and townes through which I passed, that is not used in any other country that I saw in my travels, neither doe I thinke that any other nation of Christendome doth use it, but only Italy. The Italian, and also most strangers that are commorant in Italy, doe alwaies at their meales use a little forke, when they cut their meate. For while with their knife which they hold in one hande they cut the meat out of the dish, they fasten their forke, which they hold in their other hande, upon the same dish, so that whatsoever he be that sitting in the company of any others at meale, should unadvisedly touch the dish of meate with his fingers, from which all at the table do cut, he will give occasion of offence unto the company, as having transgressed the lawes of good manners, insomuch that for his he shall be at the least brow-beaten, if not reprehended in wordes. 

This forme of feeding I understand is generally used in all places of Italy, their forkes being for the most part made of yron or steele, and some of silver, but those are used only by gentlemen. The reason of this their curiosity is, because the Italian cannot by any means indure to have his dish touched with fingers, seeing all men’s fingers are not alike cleane. Hereupon I myself thought good to imitate the Italian fashion by this forked cutting of meate, not only while I was in Italy, but also in Germany, and oftentimes in England since I came home; being once quipped for that frequent using of my forke by a certain learned gentleman, a familiar friend of mine, one Mr. Lawrence Whittaker, who in his merry humour doubted not to call me at table furcifer, only for using a forke at feeding, but for no other cause.” Furcifer, in Latin, it need hardly be observed, meant literally one who carries a fork, but its proper signification was, a villain who deserves the gallows.

The usage of forks thus introduced into England, appears soon to have become common. It is alluded to more than once in Beaumont and Fletcher, and in Ben Jonson, but always as a foreign fashion. In Jonson’s comedy of “The Devil is an Ass,” we have the following dialogue:

Meerc. Have I deserv’d this from you two, for all
My pains at court to get you each a patent?
Gilt. For what?
Meerc. Upon my project o’ the forks.
Sle. Forks? what be they?
Meerc. The laudable use of forks,
Brought into custom here, as they are in Italy,
To th’ sparing o’ napkins.

In fact the new invention rendered the washing of hands no longer so necessary as before, and though it was still continued as a polite form before sitting down to dinner, the practice of washing the hands after dinner appears to have been entirely discontinued.” – A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England, During the Middle Ages, By Thomas Wright, Esq., MA. FSA., 1862 

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

On Flatware History and Settings

“In general,” says Graber, “the proper table setting in the United States consists of two forks to the left of the plate, a knife and spoon to the right and any dessert utensils above the plate. The bread plate goes above the plate to the left and the wine and water glasses to the right and above the plate. The fork is never placed atop the napkin, but the napkin may be put on the plate. “I leave the bottom charger plate at the table during the whole meal.” – Graber with Mark Kriski, showing 1996 holiday settings on KTLA Television 

Were you born with a silver spoon in your mouth? Or would you be found below the salt? These expressions of high or low social status were derived from culinary traditions. “Below the salt” goes back to the days when salt was very valuable and therefore reserved for the nobles who sat above others, at the head of the table. “Born with a silver spoon” referred to the boxed sets containing a silver engraved knife, fork and spoon given a child at birth as a symbol of status. The child would take this personal set when he or she went away to school or on visits. Historical tidbits such as these intrigue Maura Graber, director of the R.S.V.P. Institute of Etiquette in Ontario. She often gives lectures on table settings. “I have a fascination for the unusual,” Graber said. “I started my business by giving children classes in etiquette, but as I was researching traditions, I became interested in antique flatware and the different utensils that have been used during the centuries.” 

“It’s said that Catherine De Medici, the Italian Countess, popularized eating utensils,” Graber said. “When royalty starts doing something, everyone starts. The knives, however, were made with blunt edges, so there would be no bloodshed at the table during disagreements.” The fork made then was simpler, stronger and larger than those made just for sweets. The first meat forks had two or three prongs, but a four-pronged type was developed before the end of the 17th century. With the fashion of flatware and serving utensils came a plethora of patterns, styles and types of pieces. “They kind of went nuts,” Graber said. “In Edwardian times, there could be as many as 31 different utensils used for a formal dinner.”

“I like the investigative work,” Graber said. “It's interesting to find out the history.” She has found that in napkin ring etiquette, it's proper in the United States to put the napkin back in the ring, but in France, this is rude because it presumes you are a permanent guest. In her silver collection is an olive spoon from the Victorian times that is coated with vermeil, a thin layer of gold, so the olives wouldn't corrode the silver. “If you have any utensil coated with vermeil, it's a giveaway that it's for something acidic, or salty,” she said, “such as olives.” Husband Cliff's family business is Graber Olives, and the couple and their two children live in the Graber Olive House, which is over 100 years old.

Other vintage utensils she owns are butter forks used for picking up little balls of butter, a sardine fork with a salmon design and a sucket– a fork with a spoon on one end and a two-pronged fork on the other. “This was used for foods like gingered plums, that were very popular during the Colonial times,” she said. “What you would do is spear the plum and eat it and then turn the sucket around and drink the syrup from the spoon side.” Some of the utensils she has are very practical. “One butter knife stands on it’s side in a butter dish rather than flopping over. “These are rather rare.” Graber said.

“In general, the proper table setting in the United States consists of two forks to the left of the plate, a knife and spoon to the right and any dessert utensils above the plate. The bread plate goes above the plate to the left and the wine and water glasses to the right and above the plate. The fork is never placed atop the napkin, but the napkin may be put on the plate. I leave the bottom charger (or service plate) at the table during the whole meal.” Graber said, “It gives you something different to look at between courses, it adds color and it cuts down on spills on the tablecloth.” 

Between her children’s etiquette classes, the adult etiquette dinners she and her husband conduct at their home and her television appearances, Graber is busy. But she doesn't pretend to be a Martha Stewart-like superwoman, even though she did have Stewart to dinner at her house. “My next project will be a no-brainer cookbook, full of recipes that can be made in minutes using things like canned potatoes and frozen bread dough. I use many shortcuts when I cook. I have to,” she said. – Kathy Bryant for the Los Angeles Times, 1997

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