Bread fork

The bread fork was one of the highly specialized table serving utensils of the Victorian era. This three-tined piece of silverware was shaped like a trident with a great variety of handles, some being very elaborate. The sole purpose of the utensil was to carry a slice of bread or a bread roll from the service plate to the personal bread and butter plate. Serving food with fingers was a taboo at the time, with few exceptions, like eating a bread roll. It was considered impolite to take a piece of bread from the bread basket or pass it without the use of bread fork. The fork, with its long (up to three-inch) tines, was invented in England and had some practical use there due to the tradition of serving a whole loaf to the table and cutting it as needed. The person in charge of cutting had to pass the slices somehow, and the fork was a safer replacement for a knife. In the US bread was usually served pre-sliced, making the fork unnecessary. The forks were marketed separately or in a set with the bread knife. The utensil proved to be little-used and was only popular for a very short time at the end of the 19th century (an 1893 fashion review considered it a novelty ). As a result, there is a large variety of bread forks in excellent condition available in the antique stores. Due to their fancy shapes, these forks are frequently repurposed for serving meat.…

The bread fork was one of the highly specialized table serving utensils of the Victorian era. This three-tined piece of silverware was shaped like a trident with a great variety of handles, some being very elaborate. The sole purpose of the utensil was to carry a slice of bread or a bread roll from the service plate to the personal bread and butter plate. Serving food with fingers was a taboo at the time, with few exceptions, like eating a bread roll. It was considered impolite to take a piece of bread from the bread basket or pass it without the use of bread fork. The fork, with its long (up to three-inch) tines, was invented in England and had some practical use there due to the tradition of serving a whole loaf to the table and cutting it as needed. The person in charge of cutting had to pass the slices somehow, and the fork was a safer replacement for a knife. In the US bread was usually served pre-sliced, making the fork unnecessary. The forks were marketed separately or in a set with the bread knife. The utensil proved to be little-used and was only popular for a very short time at the end of the 19th century (an 1893 fashion review considered it a novelty ). As a result, there is a large variety of bread forks in excellent condition available in the antique stores. Due to their fancy shapes, these forks are frequently repurposed for serving meat. ==References== ==Sources==

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