Cutlery, or flatware, is an everyday fixture in our lives. So much so, that it can be easy to overlook how its design and function have developed over thousands of years. From eating with our hands to where we are today, with 7-piece place settings, and numerous designs to choose from, it’s fair to say that cutlery has come a long way.
Originally, the first tools humans used for eating were our hands. As late as the Middle Ages, common people were still eating with their hands, while also using stale bread called ‘trenchers’ to push food around. In many cultures around the world, such as in Indian and the Middle East, eating with your hands is still part of everyday practice. But how did the utensils we recognise, and use daily, come to be?
What came first, the knife or the spoon?
Knives and spoons appeared in history long before the fork. Primitive blades date back to the Palaeolithic period but primarily as weapons. By Neolithic times stone blades are fitted to wooden handles, and by 1000 BC iron knives appear and are used for eating.
Knives remained sharp enough to spear meat until roughly 1637 when Cardinal Richelieu of France ruled that knives used round the table should be blunted, stopping dinner guests from picking their teeth with hunting knives. This was picked up by the French court and thus, the dinner knife was born. These blunt knives then reached the American colonies in the early 1700s. This change in knife is what led to the fork gaining popularity to hold down foods when cutting.
Spoons appeared shortly after knives. As food began to develop, new means of transferring food to mouth were needed. The word spoon originates from the Anglo-Saxon ‘spon’, meaning ‘a chip of wood’. Originally, spoons were carved from wood, horn, and shells, with our ancient ancestors attaching sticks for a longer reach. By Roman times, spoons were fashioned from pewter, bronze, and silver, with some consideration given to the aesthetic.
Viking and Saxon invaders then introduced a leaf-shaped spoon bowl to Britain with decorative acorn carvings on the handles. Later Cromwell and the Puritans remove these decorations, flatten the handle, and give the spoon its modern shape.
Forks, 2 prongs or 4?
The idea, and form, of the fork has historically been used ceremonially and in cooking since Ancient Egypt. However, using a fork as tableware only started to become popular around 400 AD in the Middle East. In Europe, forks only became a fixture at the dinning table in 1533 when Catherine De Medici, wife of Henry II, brought them back to France from a trip to Italy. And in the American colonies, forks didn’t start gaining popularity until the mid-late 17th century.
The word fork derives from the Latin ‘furca’ meaning pitchfork, and original designs only had 2 prongs. It wasn’t until the early 1700s in Germany that forks gain the extra tines. By the 1800s almost every Western household had forks, knives, and spoons, gracing the dining table, and specialised pieces started to appear, like pastry forks, and cutlery specifically for fish.
Modern Day
The invention of stainless steel in 1913 by Harry Brearley revolutionised the cutlery industry. All households could now afford a full set. With the Industrial revolution bringing about wider travel and growth of factories, this period sees the industry cutlery become what we know it as today.
Today a wide range of cutlery designs, shapes, sizes, and even colours are available. At Studio William we continue to use high quality stainless steel for all our cutlery sets and ranges.
Some useful sources:
- A Timeline of Our Ancestors’ Cutlery by David A. Fryxell
- A History of Flatware, by Reagan Garvin
