Knife rests

These silver knife rests are fine examples of the work of Frank Grady, a noted New Zealand silversmith, and are illustrative of the use of New Zealand iconography in high-end souvenirs and home-wares of the late nineteenth century. Each knife rest has an 'N' at one end and a 'Z' at the other. The ends are decorated with leaves and flowers, and the stem mounts are engraved with a fine decorative pattern. Pounamu has been used for the connecting bars.

Frank Grady

Birmingham-born jeweller Frank Grady established a business in Wellington in 1880, selling high-class jewellery alongside a wide range of imported novelties. By 1897 Grady was supplying goods ‘By Appointment to His Excellency the Governor,’ and to other high-profile Wellington families such as the Seddons. His two sons later joined him in the business and together they worked on a large number of wide-ranging commissions (Shepherd 1995, 30).

In 1908 Frank Grady Snr exhibited a selection of pieces for ‘Industries Week.' Reporting on the display, the Evening Post wrote that although ‘the manufacture of jewellery is not one which is generally recognised as being a feature in New Zealand’s Industrial life … the exhibit here made of “own make” goods is sufficient indication that in that particular craft a very high standard of excellence has been reached.’

Te Papa holds a number of other pieces by Grady, including a magnificent centrepiece in the form of a mamaku (tree fern).

Elegant Entertaining

In well-to-do households of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, having a pair of knife rests was essential for the proper laying of the dining table. The Timaru Herald reported in 1877 that ‘during all pauses in the carving [of a joint], the knife and fork should be placed on the knife rests, and never thrust and left under the joint; nor, while the carver adds the gravy to the plate of meat in front of him, with the spoon in his right hand, is it right for him to hold both knife and fork in a bunch, as it were, in his left. To do this gives a slovenly, hasty, eating-house sort of effect to the process.’ ‘Attention to simple details like these,’ they advised, distinguished the good carver from the bad, and rendered ‘the execution of his or her task rather a graceful act than otherwise.’

Knife rests were particularly popular as wedding gifts and presentation items in the late nineteenth century, but continued to feature as essential items of tableware for formal dining into the 1920s. The Herald noted in 1925 that ‘certain very definite rules’ were to be observed in the laying of the table, and that ‘the carvers and rests are placed at the head of the table and outside the personal cutlery of the one who is to carve.’

Three years later, a contributor to the same newspaper complained about having to adhere to these rules, writing ‘What a complicated business an Anglo-Saxon Rip Van Winkle would find in our modern dining arrangements! Finger bowls, knife rests, pointed grapefruit spoons, soup spoons, jam spoons, sugar spoons, mustard spoons, salt spoons, fish forks, fruit forks, bread forks, salad forks, butter knives, carving knives, stainless knives, silver knives, to say nothing of a nameless variety of dishes and glasses; why the very look of these implements would give him brain fever.’ No legal authority oversaw these dining customs, but the author warned that a man ‘takes great risks with his happiness and social success if he does not observe all the fine rules of “what is done,” and “what is not done,” that all-powerful and mysterious law of society.’

As the century progressed it became less and less common to stage meals of this grandeur, and items such as knife rests are now reserved for only the most elegant dinner parties and events. These items therefore materialise changes in eating etiquette and the ‘rules’ of upper-class entertaining, as well as being excellent examples of nineteenth-century craftsmanship.

References

• Pollock, Kerryn. 2013. 'Eating - Table Etiquette.' Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. https://teara.govt.nz/en/eating/page-4
• Shepherd, Winsome. 1995. Gold & Silversmithing in Nineteenth & Twentieth Century New Zealand. Wellington: Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand.