Treasured tines...

For some reason, probably having to do with my lifelong love of my mother's Spode dessert set, which we only dusted, but never used, I am attracted to tableware of all sorts, and especially tea accoutrements and interesting flatware. Several years ago now the Cooper Hewitt in New York ran a fabulous exhibit called, "Feeding Desire," which traced the history of eating utensils from 1500 to the present.



The exhibit was illuminating and reinforced my love of naturalistic silverware - Susie's twig utensils, and others like the piece pictured on the cover of the exhibit catalog, and the huge, Victorian sets where one place setting could possibly contain 50-100 pieces.

Then just last week Design*Sponge contained a post about forks! It reiterated much of what was in the Cooper Hewitt exhibit, but was a fun read.



The image above is from the post, a drawing by Julia Rothman that shows all of the forks you should have in your silver service.

I now have the urge to go to flea markets and antique stores and rummage for treasures in silver. And yes, in fact, I do want strawberry forks and bonbon spoons.