Expert: Martin G Roberts - 2/18/2004

Question
In excavating my mother's estate we found some peculiar flatware - forks, knives and spoons.  They have wooden handles and the metal appears to be iron as it is rusted.  The forks have 3 prongs.  I have searched the internet but have not found anything similar. I suspect these are quite old - in addition to a bit of rust, the handles are split and appear never to have been varnished or sealed.  There are quite a few old objects from the 1600 and 1700 hundreds (desks, books)all of which have been handed down generation after generation.  Is this sort of flatware valuable?  Would a museum be interested in a donation of it?
Thanks!

Answer
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Cutlery of the 17th and 18th centuries is quite scarce, and desirable if in good condition. But frankly I doubt these are very old. Three prong forks do not indicate age, and rust might indicate steel as easily as iron. Buried iron objects of great age will be thoroughly rusted, and may have completely degraded.

Wooden handles are not common on forks or spoons until the 19th century. Spoons, in particular, are very distinctively styled in the 17th and 18th centuries, and would strike you as completely different to those of modern design, so if the spoons look fairly conventional, they are probably modern. There are some 17th century spoons presently listed on my website, which you might use for comparison (see below for link).

So I would be sceptical, but keep an open mind. Books and furniture, if genuine 17th century and in good condition, are highly desirable, and likely to be significantly more valuable than flatware.

By all means take them to a museum, but do not be disappointed if they reject the items.

Martin
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Martin Roberts
ANTIQUEMETALWARE
Shropshire, UK
stynt@btopenworld.com
www.antique-metalware.co.uk