Silver-related Ads - Refresh screen or scroll down right sidebar for more choices

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Is it for Salad, Dessert, Fish, Pastry...?

Look at the picture below. What is it?

  • Salad fork?
  • Dessert fork?
  • Fish fork?
  • Pastry fork?

The reason we ask the question is because we have seen forks like this listed as all the above descriptive names by sellers in their ads!

I think most of us agree that this is a salad fork (see our earlier post, About Forks). So why is it called by the other names? We think it could be one of these reasons:

  • The seller is too lazy to look it up
  • The seller is trying to get a better price by calling it something more exotic
  • The seller is trying to broaden the market for the item by giving it multiple uses (e.g., "This is a salad/fish/dessert fork...")

Many sterling flatware patterns include unique fish forks that may vaguely resemble a salad fork but generally are quite different. Many patterns also include pastry forks that also look different. So, to call this a fish fork or pastry fork is incorrect, we believe.

Now that brings us to dessert forks. We would like to receive comments about this because we are having trouble coming up with an example of a piece identified by the manufacturer as a "dessert fork". It is true that many people use salad forks when serving certain types of desserts. So, perhaps it is OK to use "dessert" as an alternate name for this piece. What do you think?

If you are looking for pieces with the names included in this post, make sure you have a picture and precise measurements for reference before you buy.

Let us hear from you about this.

Click on any picture to see a larger version. By clicking on "Comments" below, you can see posted comments and add your own questions/comments.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm looking for a new set of stainless steel flatware with blunt knives. Is anybody making them these days?

Silver Jim said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Silver Jim said...

I have not seen any new blunt knives of any type for a while. However, I'm not familiar with most stainless steel patterns.

Anybody out there know?

Anonymous said...

On the back of my Gorham Vanity Fair flatware, it says EP 1928 S. I assume the EP is for Electro Plate; 1928- the year the patern first came out, but what does the S mean?

Silver Jim said...

Responding to the question about Gorham Vanity Fair, I'm sorry to say I don't know what the "S" stands for. You may be able to get an answer by contacting Gorham. Their "Contact Us" web page is at http://www.gorham1831.com/misc/contact_us.cfm .