Complete canteens of silver are very hard to come by, but assembling your own set from odd finds in junk shops and markets is quite feasible.

The use of forks is taken for granted today, but a mere 350 years ago it was considered an eccentric whim. Knives and spoons were far more important, spoons often being given as christening or betrothal gifts. They were topped with finials modelled as apostles or baluster-shaped vases and often engraved with the owner’s initials. Hosts were not expected to provide cutlery and wealthy guests carried their own in a leather case.

The earliest sets of silver flatware followed the development of rolled sheet metal in the 17th century — hence the term ‘flatware‘. A fashion for decorated matching sets of cutlery, die-stamped from sheet metal and including forks, sprang up in France during the mid-17th century, and was brought to Britain by Charles II at his restoration in 1660.

Canteens

Full sets of cutlery dating from before about 1800 are very rare, indeed they are almost impossible to find today. However, complete silver sets from the 19th century do sometimes come up for sale. A 12-place setting, for example, will sell at auction for between £2000 and £5000. However, a collector who is not too concerned about owning cutlery of varying sizes can create a canteen of matching cutlery by buying single pieces at perhaps only £10-£20 per piece. It is best to choose one of the commoner patterns, such as Hanoverian, Old English, Fiddle or King’s — first seen about 1710, 1760, 1770 and 1810 respectively.

Antique Collection

It is more difficult, but more valuable in the long run, to build up a collection of pieces by the same maker, preferably hallmarked in the same year. This is not quite as hard as it sounds, as most cutlery was made by a handful of firms— the Eley, Fearn, Chawner and Smith families in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and Francis Higgins and George Adams in the later 19th.

Antique and secondhand electroplated canteens of cutlery are also still an excellent buy at £200-£500. Even those produced as late as the 1930s are often of better quality than their modern, expensive counterparts.

A typical early British canteen generally consisted of tablespoons, dinner knives and forks, dessert spoons and forks, teaspoons and serving utensils. Many American and Continental canteens might contain additional items ranging from spaghetti and pea forks to spoons for both hot and cold soup. These pieces are generally inexpensive in Britain: around £5-£15 per ounce compared to British flatware at around £12-£20 per ounce.

British-made canteens were expanded in the late 19th century. Fish eaters and soup spoons were introduced for the first time, and were made to match existing canteens.

Dessert sets have often survived intact. Until the 1820s, most such sets consisted of knives and forks only, sometimes gilded and with carved mother-of-pearl or ivory handles. A 12-place setting in a case will sell for £350-£600, whereas the electroplated equivalent will sell for only £120-£200. Later sets include spoons, often ornately engraved. Many of the plain Georgian tablespoons were adapted for dessert sets with added decoration and gilding, and surprisingly these altered ‘berry spoons‘ often fetch up to £70-£100 a pair, whereas their plain, original counterparts may sell for only £30-£40 a pair. More extensive dessert sets come with grape shears, sugar sifting spoons, nutcrackers and picks. Folding fruit knives, forks and apple corers were also made for travellers.

Sets of Teaspoons

Teaspoons were usually part of a large canteen of flatware, but many sets were also sold separately. Attractive odd spoons can still be found for a few pounds each. Among the mostcharming are the tiny Hanoverian-pattem spoons made in the mid-i8th century, especially those known as ‘picture backs’ or ‘fancy backs’. These were made from thin sheet silver, with die-stamped decoration under the bowl, and sell for £50-£200 per half dozen.

More unusual are historical commemorative spoons, including political and coronation examples, and those decorated with symbols of rural plenty, such as sheaves of corn, milkmaids and hens with chicks. These sell at £250-£350 per half dozen. Souvenir spoons date from the mid-19th century on. You can find them at flea markets and junk shops for as little as E5-£15 each.

Serving Utensils

Serving implements, originally supplied as part of a canteen, are usually found separately. Sugar tongs, widely used from the 1780s and made in a variety of styles, sell for around £15-£30 each today. Their earlier equivalent, scissor-action sugar nips, are more difficult to find, although Victorian copies can be found quite easily at about £120-£180. Asparagus tongs were also first made with a scissor action, but by the late 18th century the U-shape had become standard.

In the mid- 19th century, fish slices were fashioned from sheet metal to match popular flatware designs of the day, and fish-serving forks also appeared. Slices and forks were often paired and boxed in leather cases. Solid-silver sets now fetch £150-£400 and electroplated sets £30-£ 100, depending on how decorative they are.

Butter spades of the 18th century closely resemble slices, but often have green-stained ivory baluster handles. Good examples are rare and expensive, for they were replaced by butter knives towards the end of the century.

Marrow scoops (for eating bone marrow) were made in large numbers in the 18th and 19th centuries. They are usually one piece of silver with a flat, elongated bowl at each end. Most sell at auction for about £70-£120, but early examples, or those whose bowls face in opposite directions, may fetch up to £200. Early 18th-century marrow spoons — which have a scoop at one end and a tablespoon- sized bowl at the other — are rarer still, and fetch up to 150-£250. Beware of fakes made by converting or reshaping early tablespoons.

Ivory-handled silver cheese scoops of the 18th and early 19th centuries — some fitted with a slide to push the cheese onto the plate — are usually in poor condition. But by the 1830s they were entirely of heavy-gauge silver and much sturdier. They can be found in popular canteen styles for about £120-£160.

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