Damn it, damn it, damn it.
I just got the wrong fork AGAIN.
I am a silverplate novice.
Sigh.
This fall I got intrigued with some of the family silverplate, particularly after I bought a cheap set of silverplate in an old silver chest off of eBay. I got tired of using disposable plastic forks at our house concerts....the cost adds up in addition to the fact that you're throwing away all that plastic every time. I decided I would hunt down the cheapest silverware I could find....Ikea or Target or the like and buy that to use for parties. Well....DAMN but the cheapest stuff was ugly and not all that cheap. So I hit up Ebay and the set I got, combined with various other odds and ends, are what we use at our parties now. The only flaw is that we don't put them in the dishwasher....same with the goblets we use....but Ernie is a hell of a dishwasher (and I'm good at saying, Oh man...you are SO wonderful!) so it works out and it's well worth it for the pleasure of using it all.
So anyway....before Christmas I flooded Diana with pictures of our silver and she kindly identified it all. The Art Deco forks and knives were Silhouette and c. 1930. We agreed that they would look stunning on the table and I could use the coin silver spoons with them. We were down to only 4 of the forks and about 8 salad forks. So I merrily began looking for good deals online. I found a pair of Silhouette forks at a great price and sent off my money. They got here and I pulled them out and thought, hmmmmm.....those don't look the same.
It turns out the forks that I have are viande or grille style, which was introduced right around the time of my pattern and have elongated handles. Turns out my Great-Aunt or whomever bought these was a trendy little thing! What I had purchased was the regular style fork....same size...totally different look though. So I added the new forks to the house concert supplies and told myself to make sure the handles were elongated and the bowls had that intertwined ribbon design next time!
So lo and behold I found six, six mind you, for a good price. I happily sent my money off and anxiously checked the tracking every day. Yesterday morning it said they were on the truck for delivery and sure enough the package came. I tore it open excitedly and thought, hmmmmm.....these don't look quite right.
DAMN IT.
I'm thinking what I ended up with are the viande/grille luncheon forks. Does that sound right Diana? They are the style I want but about an inch shorter.
So now I've found a bunch of what I want...I checked the measurements this time (brilliant idea, huh?) and they're only $5 a piece but damn it....I've already spent my silver plate budget. Particularly because I bought a bakelite silver chest off of eBay last night....only $20 though!
| the two forks on the left are the ones I had originally |