WHEN FORKS WERE RARE
In the October 25, 1999 issue of The E-Sylum (v2#43),
we reviewed a book by Henry Petroski on the history and
evolution of the bookshelf - "The Book on the Bookshelf".
Another of Petrowski's books is "The Evolution of Useful
Things: How Everyday Artifacts - from Forks and Pins to
Paper Clips and Zippers - Came to Be As They Are."
(1992)
The following passage may be of some interest to collectors
and researchers of colonial-era numismatics. ".. the fork
was a rare item in colonial America. According to one
description of everyday life in the Massachusetts Bay
Colony, the first and only fork in the earliest days, carefully
preserved in its case, had been brought over in 1630 by
Governor Winthrop. In seventeenth century America,
"knives, spoons, and fingers, with plenty of napery, met the
demands of table manners." (p16, First Vintage Books
Edition, 1994, taken from Dow, George, "Every Day Life
in the Massachusets Bay Colony", 1935)
Wayne Homren, Editor
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