what were these spoons used for?

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shayes
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Joined: Sat Jun 17, 2006 4:13 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA

what were these spoons used for?

Post by shayes »

These are all coin spoons and all over 9 inches in length. All but one have one scalloped/fancy edge and one plain edge. They were produced in the time before the great proliforation of serving forms that took place in the late 19th century.
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The question is: what were they used for?
Someone once gave me a rule of thumb that if one was in doubt about a coin server's use, it was for ice cream. Ice cream was a popular novelty, and those who had the wherewithal to make/serve it bought a variety of interesting implements to slice it or scoop it.
Are these large and heavy servers one of those forms?
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Marc
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Joined: Mon Dec 24, 2007 12:10 pm

Post by Marc »

Hi there Shayes,

These look like berry spoons, for desserts and such.. Very nice berry spoons. If they were slotted, they might be for ice, or peas.

At the time your servers were made, ice cream servers were made to cut, not to scoop, and as such, they resembled fish servers with completely flat blades. Usually heavy duty, because they had to cut well frozen "bricks" of ice cream.

Hope this helps a little.

Marc
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shayes
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Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Jun 17, 2006 4:13 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA

question servers

Post by shayes »

These spoons are bigger than berry spoons--all over 9.5 inches long--and the bowls are larger in proportion to the handle than berry spoons. I have seen ice cream slices, spades and shovels, so there were definitely a lot of ways to serve it.
Stan
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