Whiting Manufacturing Company
Pair of Melon Forks

RetailerAmerican, 1817–1871
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Pair of Melon Forks
Datec. 1866–1871
Retailed inCharleston, South Carolina, United States
Made inAttleboro, Massachusetts, United States
Made inNew York , New York, United States
MediumSilver
DimensionsEach: 8 1/4 in. length (21 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, museum purchase funded by an anonymous donor in honor of William S. Kilroy, Jr. on the occasion of his birthday
Object numberB.90.3.1,.2
Non exposé

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Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

These intriguing instruments, intended as melon knives, are indicative of the emerging rules of etiquette and accompanying proliferation of specialized dining utensils in mid-nineteenth-century America. As one social arbitrator admonished her readers: “No lady looks worse than when gnawing a bone, even of game or poultry. Few ladies do it. In fact, nothing should be sucked or gnawed in public; neither corn bitten off the cob, nor melon nibbled from the rind.” The knives are double struck in Michael Gibney’s Tuscan, one of the earliest American flatware patterns.

Technical notes: The backs have not been decorated by engine turning. 

Related examples: Other pairs from this set are at Winterthur and the Charleston Museum.

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.


Provenance[Marian N. Soloway, West Orange, New Jersey]; purchased by MFAH, 1990.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Engraved: M
Mark of James E. Spear [Belden 1980, p. 389]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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