Knife and fork
(c. 1740)

• SAINT-CLOUD PORCELAIN FACTORY, Saint-Cloud (manufacturer)

During the Renaissance food was generally consumed with the hands. Cutlery remained relatively rare and was brought to a meal by the diner, not provided by the host. As a result, much early cutlery was elaborately decorative and came in its own carrying case. A knife might be used to cut meats and transport hot food to the mouth, and a spoon could be used for liquid dishes like soup. The fork remained a novelty until the very end of the sixteenth century and was generally reserved for serving; its use was considered by many outside of Italy and Spain to be overrefined and effeminate. It was only in the very late seventeenth century that the practice of acquiring sets of cutlery for guests to use at meals began to take hold. Porcelain handles for cutlery were introduced into Europe from China in around 1730. By the mid eighteenth century porcelain-handled cutlery was highly fashionable. The pistol-grip handles of this knife and fork are typical of mid eighteenth–century cutlery, as is the shape of the knife blade, the so-called ‘scimitar’ form.