six spoons "wt owles at the end of the handles." Professor Wilson
said, "A plated spoon is a pitiful imposition," and he was right.
If there is one article of table service in which solidity of metal
is of more importance than in another, it is the spoon, which must
perforce come in contact with the lips whenever it is used. In England
the earliest spoons were of about the thirteenth century, and the first
idea of a handle seems to have been a plain shaft ending in a ball or
knob. Gradually spoons began to show more of the decorative instinct
of their designers; acorns, small statuettes, and such devices
terminated the handles, which still retained their slender proportions,
however. Finally it became popular to have images of the Virgin on
individual spoons, which led to the idea, after a bit, of decorating
the dozen with the twelve apostles. These may be seen of all periods,
differently elaborated. Sets of thirteen are occasionally met with,
these having one with the statue of Jesus as the Good Shepherd,
with a lamb on his shoulders: it is known as the "Master spoon."

[Illustration: APOSTLE SPOONS]

The first mention of forks in France is in the Inventory, of Charles
V., in 1379. We hear a great deal about the promiscuous use of
knives before forks were invented; how in the children's book of
instructions they are enjoined "pick not thy teeth with thy knife,"
as if it were a general habit requiring to be checked. Massinger
alludes to a

"silver fork
To convey an olive neatly to thy mouth,"

but this may apply to pickle forks. Forks were introduced from Italy