From the moment that having a baby was even a thought, I started looking forward to creating moments of magic in her childhood. And while I certainly hope to create those magic moments year-round, the holidays are particularly ripe for making special moments.

After Mark and I got married, I started looking around at flatware — thinking it would be nice to have a fresh set to commemorate our new union together. I spent hours down the internet flatware rabbit hole. Most of what I liked was so expensive that I found it hard to pull the trigger and make a commitment. So, I decided to go vintage. I already had some silver-plated flatware pieces and I found an entire set of twelve on eBay for less than what a single new set would have been.

And while I was looking at flatware, I stumbled upon silver-plated knife rests. (Cue the angel chorus.)

I had never really heard of or paid attention to knife rests. Apparently they were used in well-run households in 18th and 19th centuries. Plates were swapped out between courses, but diners were supposed to retain their knives. Good manners dictated that once you’ve used a utensil and it’s dirty, it shouldn’t be placed back on the table. (After all, most tables were covered with a white table cloth) The knife rests were neater than the practice of balancing knives on slices of bread. Modern knife rests came about in the late 17th or early 18th century, but they originally can be tied to the times of Henry VIII.

I have a wood table and almost never use a tablecloth so while the intended purpose of the knife rest isn’t applicable, I was utterly charmed by the animals. I loved the idea of Stella setting the table for family dinners and choosing who gets which animal. The ones that I ended up purchasing came from France (land of white tablecloths) I’ve found Etsy to be a fantastic resource for purchasing vintage finds from Europe. I purchased from two different sellers (here and here) and received my packages from France to California in less than a week.

And another historical side note: If you look closely, at the vintage knives you’ll notice that they have a very rounded ends. This is a distinguishing feature of the table knife. The origin of this dates back to the 1600s; it was supposedly to cure dinner guests of the unsavory habit of picking their teeth with their knife-points. In 1669, King Louis XIV of France banned pointed knives in the street and at his table, insisting on blunt tips, in order to reduce violence. If you can recall this when setting the table, it will help you remember to always place the blade of the knife towards your plate – and not towards your neighbor as a way to help to ‘keep the peace’.

Points to Know

You can put silver-plated flatware in the dishwasher. The general advice is to make sure the detergent doesn’t contain lemon or citric acid as that could damage the metal, but I’m pretty relaxed about this.
Polish or don’t: I polished my set just because it felt cleaner to me, but I don’t mind tarnished silver either. It’s up to you!

Creating Holiday Magic with silver-plated knife rests