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V4 2001 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 4, Number 13, March 25, 2001, Article 10 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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