SC - Real feasts?

[david friedman]

At 11:51 AM -0700 7/26/99, Laura C Minnick wrote:
>On Mon, 26 Jul 1999 LrdRas at aol.com wrote:
>
>> In a message dated 7/26/99 1:00:35 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>>stefan at texas.net
>> writes:
>>
>> << The fact that forks were not used in
>>  most cultures as eating utensils. >>
>> Is the use of forks typical for feast goers in you area? I seldom if
>>ever see
>> them being used here. Knives, spoons and fingers, yes. Forks, no.
>
>The Italians had and used them occasionally from the 14th c. Otherwise
>they were kitchen utensils, not tableware.

There are Byzantine forks much earlier than that, including one in the
Cleveland Museum of Art that certainly looks like an eating implement
(small and made of silver). I believe the British Museum has two
Anglo-Saxon fork and spoon sets, one unfinished. The V&A published a
pamphlet on tableware, including what they thought was the earliest
painting of someone eating with a fork. I think it was earlier than 14th c.
and not Italian, but I'd have to check to be sure.

My impression was that forks were exotic eating utensils--like fondue forks
today, something that is occasionally used for some things. Sometime near
or just after the end of our period they became, in England, part of the
standard "table setting."

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


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