Design

Style eras of cutlery

The Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages and well into the baroque period, cutlery was applied for the customary table ceremonial. Food and especially roasts were carved and then shared out to the participating guests. Performed with great skill, the ritualised craftsmanship was celebrated in the presence and to the delight of the company at the table.

Depending on their function, the kind of meat as well as the size of the roast, there were many knives varying in size and strength used for dividing and carving. Already portioned pieces of meat had to be arranged or served. For this purpose broad and in many cases pairs of serving knives rounded at the points were used. Often they were particularly splendid in their artistic design.

Source of image: Klaus Marquardt, Eßbesteck - Eine Kunstsammlung, Europäisches aus acht Jahrhunderten, Arnoldsche Verlag

Renaissance and Mannerism

The artistically produced and ornamented tools for portioning and serving food were developed further in the Renaissance style. New combinations of matching tools materialised – knives, saws, files, awls and augers. At the same time silver became an important status symbol of the affluent nobility and middle-class, which of course also had an impact on the population at large.

Source of image: Klaus Marquardt, Eßbesteck - Eine Kunstsammlung, Europäisches aus acht Jahrhunderten, Arnoldsche Verlag

Baroque and Rococo

As the 18th century continued, making a show of carving lost its significance; these activities were transferred to the kitchen. The development of the style of cutlery corresponded altogether to that of other arts and crafts of the time, also as far as the individual regions were concerned: a lush exuberance in the South and natural, unpretentious forms in the North.

Source of image: Klaus Marquardt, Eßbesteck - Eine Kunstsammlung, Europäisches aus acht Jahrhunderten, Arnoldsche Verlag

An interesting fact is that in this epoch the number of preserved spoons surpasses that of knives and forks. The fork was a rather seldom piece, knives were subject to more wear and tear. Only gradually did the uniform set of knife, fork and spoon assert itself.

Classicism and Biedermeier

During the epoch of classicism and Biedermeier the shape was simplified and rather modest items were preferred. Mostly thin silver was used economically for cutlery. It can clearly be seen when spoons of this time and those of earlier epochs are compared – they are usually considerably lighter. The poor stability, but also the following historicism with its fondness for exuberance, sets this unpretentious cutlery aside which most certainly contributes to the minor role it plays today.

Historicism

The turn of the century separates the cutlery of the historicism from that of the Art Nouveau and the New Objectivity. This corresponds approximately with the actual sequence of the epochs of style. But a more exact contemplation shows that there had already been signs of the new styles in the decade before the turn of the century, before they found a wider popularity after 1900. Historicism, though, was at no point suppressed or even replaced. Taking the taste of a large section of the population into account, many cutlery models of the historicism were still to be procured after the turn of the century.

Just for the record it must be stated that during the epoch of the historicism every possible style of the preceding epochs was copied down to the last detail. Instead of creating new designs, cutlery production of this time was defined by imitation.

Source of image: Klaus Marquardt, Eßbesteck - Eine Kunstsammlung, Europäisches aus acht Jahrhunderten, Arnoldsche Verlag

Art Nouveau and the New Objectivity

Towards the end of the 19th century the era of Art Nouveau set new trends in the design of cutlery. Copious ornaments and forms, which were adapted from nature, found themselves on the handles of cutlery. A particular quality of the history of cutlery in the 19th century was the development of special serving pieces. The processing material for these tools – as with the other cutlery pieces – was mainly silver.

Source of image: Klaus Marquardt, Eßbesteck - Eine Kunstsammlung, Europäisches aus acht Jahrhunderten, Arnoldsche Verlag