By the mid-nineteenth century a companion fork was coupled with the fish slice to form a standard pairing. No other flat service pieces approached the scale, amount of ornament, or popularity of these utensils. The Bayou Bend set, a handsome example of the King’s pattern, is suitably engraved with fish, a basket, a rod, and a net within a Rococo surround.

Technical notes: Both objects are double struck. The set has survived with its original box, which bears the address 565 & 567 Broadway.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.