I bumped into an article written by Frank Herendeen of the Historical Glass Museum in Redlands, CA. The article is about a collection of Victorian knife rests that the museum received for display in September, but it’s also quite informative from a historical perspective, as it discusses the use of knife rests at the Victorian table.
Here are some of the things that Frank tells us.
Knife rests were part of the Victorian convention, along with fish knives, lettuce forks and individual asparagus tongs. Depending on whether the host or the butler did the carving, two large knife rests would reside either at the head of the table or the sideboard.
At the wealthier Victorian tables, each diner would also get a set of knife rests. These rests were frequently of cut glass to match the glassware pattern of the table overall.
Etiquette called for putting your knife on the knife rest as your plate was removed between courses. As you were eating, on the other hand, you put your knife down on your plate, not on the knife rest. And the knife would never be on the rest at the beginning of the meal.
Click here to read the full article and see the photos of the knife rests.