Silver spoon

“ These sherbet spoons are really works of art, and are valued by oriental amateurs. Many of the merchants are very proud of their sherbet spoons; and being wood, they are ‘lawful;’ for a metal spoon, if of silver, is an abomination; consequently, the teaspoons in Persia have a filigree hole in the bowl, and thus can be used for stirring the tea only, and not for the unlawful act of conveying it to the mouth in a silver spoon. Of course, these high-art sherbet spoons are only seen at the houses of the better classes, a coarser wooden spoon being used by the lower classes. ”

“ The utility of articles valued for their beauty depends closely upon the expensiveness of the articles. A homely illustration will bring out this dependence. A hand-wrought silver spoon, of a commercial value of some ten to twenty dollars, is not ordinarily more serviceable—in the first sense of the word—than a machine-made spoon of the same material. It may not even be more serviceable than a machine-made spoon of some "base" metal, such as aluminum, the value of which may be no more than some ten to twenty cents. ”

“ Only to gentlemen possessed of a luxuriant mustache is it permitted to take soup from the point of the spoon, always providing they can do so skilfully and without an awkward use of the arm. The gold or silver spoons for after-dinner coffee are very small, as befits the dainty cups of egg-shell china. ”

“ Uses of a Wooden Spoon.—Never use any but a wooden or silver spoon to stir anything with in cooking. Many a dish is spoiled by the cook stirring it with an iron or metal spoon. Wood is the best when any acid, such as vinegar, is used in the ingredients to be stirred.
335. Boiling Vegetables.—Boil parsnips and such vegetables with thin skins; then peel when cold. The flavor is preserved and your hands are not stained.
336. To Wash Furniture.—Furniture washed with castile soap and tepid water and rubbed with a piece of old silk will look like new. ”

“ About the year 1825, some Boston people discovered that a tolerable silver spoon could be made much thinner than the custom of the trade had previously permitted, and that these thin spoons could be sold by pedlers very advantageously. The consequence of this discovery was, that silver spoons became an article of manufacture in Boston, whence pedlers conveyed them to the remotest nooks of New England. ”

“ Every operation is performed with the utmost care, and not until the piece is actually finished can this vigilance be relaxed, as it is the final processes that make the plating of pure silver an actual part of the spoon and insure its wearing qualities. ”

“ A point to be remembered in the placing of silver is that the various pieces should always be placed on the table in the order in which they are to be used. Here the first spoon is for the cocktail, which is already on the table, while the second spoon is for the soup, the next course. The knife, which is the third piece of silver, with the two forks on the opposite side will be required for the dinner course, while the third fork is a fork for the salad course. ”

“ SILVER CLEANING. Silver may be cleaned easily and thoroughly by placing it in an aluminum pan filled with a hot solution of baking soda, salt and sugar, or in an enamel or granite pan, using a similar solution and a small piece of aluminum such as a measuring spoon or pot cover. Use about a tablespoon of each, baking soda, salt and sugar, for every quart of hot water. 37 Select a large container for convenience. Place the silver in such a way that it is completely immersed and that each piece comes in contact with the aluminum or a piece of silver touching the aluminum. ”

“ As each finishes with the first course, let her place a plate of smaller size generally used for tart or pudding before him, with a silver fork and spoon: in some families the spoon is not approved of, it is thought that even custard should be eaten with a silver fork; but the practice (or rather the attempt) is more refined than agreeable or convenient. ”

“ After these things are in place, the silver is next to be considered: luckily the fashion of displaying all one happens to own is no longer considered in good taste; it was always rather vulgar and savoured of the shop, and no one can regret that the fancy has gone by. All that is [Pg 11] needed now is the oyster fork, or, if fruit is to be the first course, a spoon or fork on the right, then the soup spoon, and either one or two knives as will be needed; on the left either two or three forks; the handsome dessert or ice cream spoon may lie across the top of the plate. ”

“ Dacre.'
'Admirably answered, monsieur,' he replied, pouring out the wine, 'and now I offer you a clew. Find out all about the story of the silver spoons.'
'The story of the silver spoons! What silver spoons?'
'Ah! That is the point. Step out of the Temple into Fleet Street, seize the first man you meet by the shoulder, and ask him to tell you about the silver spoons. There are but two men and two spoons concerned. ”

“ For making spoons, forks, cups, candlesticks, etc., the most suitable proportions are 50 parts of copper, 25 of zinc, and 25 of nickel. This metal has a beautiful blue-white color, and does not tarnish easily.
German silver is sometimes so brittle that a spoon, if allowed to fall upon the floor, will break ”

“ Spoons are laid on the table with the hollow of the bowl up, and forks with the ends of the tines up.
Besides the silver each place needs a glass for water—glasses are turned up, not down—and others suitable for any beverages which are to be served. A salt cellar will be needed if individual salts are used. These are not regarded favourably at present but are tolerated if each has a spoon. And either a small butter plate or a bread and butter [166] plate and butter knife are put at each place except sometimes at dinner when butter is not served. ”

“ The curvature of the bowl is produced by repeated "coaxing" blows by a steel punch and a die of cast composition of lead and tin. No file dressing is employed on the faces of the spoon; only the edges are file-dressed to form. From the anvil and the die the spoons come to hand-smoothing with Scotch gray stones and polishing by stiff brushes, generally revolving brushes charged with "grits" and oil. Burnishing is the finish of spoons as of all bright silver goods.
A LITTLE STUDY IN ANATOMY.
HOW many bones in the human face? ”

“ If it should be jelly, blancmange, or cream, a tablespoon is sufficient, but for pastry a large fork as well as a spoon is needed. In handing entrées or sweets that require cutting, the first cutting should be done by the servant at the sideboard before she hands the dish. In dishing sweets, never decorate them either with flowers or anything else, except their own cooking belongings. It is very bad taste simply because it is without any reason. A glass dish set in a silver one is the best, with a fringed d’oyley between, barely showing, but just enough to prevent a hard look. ”

“ The one thing that should be first in your mind is the service used. Your champagne glasses, or your Sundae cups should be either silver, glass or china, but always thin and dainty in design. A special spoon smaller in size than your soda spoons and a small silver tray should be used. ”

“ One day, in 1830, the question occurred to Jabez Gorham, Why not make spoons in Providence, and sell them to the pedlers who buy our jewelry? The next time he took his trunk of trinkets to Boston, he looked about him for a man who knew something of the art of spoon-making. One such he found, a young man just "out of his time," whom he took back with him to Providence, where he established him in an odd corner of his jewelry shop. In this small way, thirty-seven years ago, the business began which has grown to be the largest and most complete manufactory of silver-ware in the world. ”

“ From London, six knives, nine silver forks, three silver table spoons, three silver dessert spoons, three silver tea spoons, one silver salt spoon, a silver pencil case, three penholders, one mounted in silver and two in gold, and a penknife. ”

“ Silver spoons aren't usually found in country lodgings, so it's no use looking in the sideboard, but I think I caught sight of a missionary-box on the mantelpiece which might be worth enquiring into, seeing there's not much else to bag. ”

“ Essex, giving Arthur a searching look.
"God helping me," he answered, "I'll try to be right and true everywhere and every time. I should be ashamed to be outdone by a donkey."
C. M. L.
MANUFACTURE OF SILVER SPOONS.
PROBABLY there is no article of table or of other household use in the production of which so little of machine working is employed. Almost all the work on solid silver spoons is hand work; the exceptions are the rolling of the ingot into plates, and the production of spoons with ornamentation in relief, which is produced by recessed patterns on the rolls. ”

“ Now the daughter was dead, and she had the spoons. She regarded the daily use of them as an almost sinful luxury, but she brought them out in their heavy glass tumbler every meal.
"I'm goin' to have them children learn to eat off silver spoons," she said, defiantly, to their father, "they'll think more of themselves." ”

“ Often they are workers in silver in a small way; have a counter in the front parlor, and a tiny work-room opening out behind, where they make thin silver spoons with twisted handles, and brooches with dangling disks and crosses, such as all the peasant women wear to-day, and a hundred years hence their grandchildren will be selling to English and American travellers as "old silver." ”

“ In the estate of Richard Stock, there were thirteen silver spoons. two sugar-dishes, a porringer, a tankard, two dram cups, two punch and one candle, and a pair of snuffers. [105] Henry Spratt of Lower Norfolk possessed, in the form of silverware, three plates, one tankard, one salt-cellar, a beaker, three candle, three dram, and seven sack cups, two porringers, and fourteen spoons. Thomas Sibsey of the same county was the owner in silver of two beer-bowls, two wine-cups, a tankard, a beaker, twenty-four spoons, and four salt-cellars. The silver pieces belonging to Mrs. ”

“ Big spoons for soup and small for tea and those that serve cook's artistry and spoons we've bought on holiday to prove we've really been away! Of all the spoons I've ever seen in any place that I have been, the one I like the best of all is specially made and neat and small, its handle looped that it can fit the dimpled hand that clutches it—the spoon that makes a dozen trips to Baby's laughing, rosy lips! ”

“ If there is one article of table service in which solidity of metal is of more importance than in another, it is the spoon, which must perforce come in Page 40 contact with the lips whenever it is used. In England the earliest spoons were of about the thirteenth century, and the first idea of a handle seems to have been a plain shaft ending in a ball or knob. ”

“ By the way, in cooking soups, as indeed in all Chafing-Dish cookery, I cannot too earnestly insist upon the use of wooden spoons for all stirring manipulations. Metal spoons, even silver, are abhorrent to the good cook. ”

“ SUGAR SHELL. Given for new subscriptions amounting to $2.00.
In any of the styles given for spoons. With solid or flat handle. Price, $1.00.
TEASPOONS AND FORKS.
The spoons and forks can be selected from any of the four patterns illustrated. They are guaranteed triple plated (12 dwts. to the doz.) , on the best of 18 per cent. Nickel Silver, warranted, and in finish, style, and quality are excelled by none. They will give thorough satisfaction. ”

“ The spout of the potter always presented greater difficulties in technique than did the spout of the silversmith. In early types of porcelain it is in form similar to the two silver examples of teapot and tea-kettle of 1745 and 1746. But the potter could not attain to the flutings and chased ornament of{249} the worker in metal. The silversmith’s spout soldered on the body, has spreading ornament eminently suitable to afford strength at the juncture. ”

“ MRS. SWEENY The adventures of the Gravy Spoon were of the simpler household variety, inexplicable, disconnected, yet following in a certain order a track familiar to all Irish householders. The gravy spoon was antique, slender of curve, and delicately ornamented along its graceful handle. Every servant connected with the spoon will now testify that the handle was cracked from the day it was made. One even asserts that "When ye'd strike it agin anything there'd be a roaring in it," which, of course, leaves no more to be said. ”

“ In this mould all his spoons and those of his neighbors were cast. It is now in the Deerfield Memorial Hall.
A still more universal spoon material was alchymy, also called occamy, alcamy, arkamy, etc., a metal never used now, which was made of a mixture of pan-brass and arsenicum. Wooden spoons, too, were always seen. In Pennsylvania and New York laurel was called spoonwood, because the Indians made pretty white spoons from that wood to sell to the colonists. Horn was an appropriate and available material for spoons. Many Indian tribes excelled as they do to-day in the making of horn spoons. ”

“ THE SPOON AT THE DINNER TABLE
Spoons are used when eating grapefruit and other fruits served with cream. Jellies, puddings, custards, porridges, preserves and boiled eggs are always eaten with spoons. Also, of course, soup, bouillon, coffee and tea. In the case of the three latter beverages, however, the spoon is used only to stir them once or twice and to taste them to see that they are of the desired temperature. It is never allowed to stand in the cup while the beverage is being drunk. Nor is it permissible to draw up a spoonful of soup or coffee and blow upon it ”