Crumb Knife

Not just for the efficient waiter in the fancy restaurant, these are available in your pattern for use at your dining room table. The Crumb Knife (or Crumber) is designed to remove crumbs from your table. My assumption is that this was not meant for the lady of the house but more likely for her house servants.

This can be a very expensive piece in some of the older patterns.

(Unknown pattern by Duhme)

Oyster Servers

Yes, there are two - the Oyster Server and the Fried Oyster Server, as well as an Oyster Fork, which is used in addition to a five piece place setting. The server is used to serve oysters both in and out of the shell, while the fried server, just like its name, is used to serve fried oysters. (And, to think all these years I have been using a standard serving spoon - how embarrassing.)

The Oyster Server shown Lancaster by Gorham

Oyster Fork shown in Olympian by Tiffany

Petite Four Server

If you didn't know before, you need the Petite Four Server to properly to serve your petite fours. You can find this piece in most patterns.


(Shown Love Disarmed by Reed and Barton)

Jelly/Cake Server

Once again, not to be confused with your every day cake server, the Jelly/Cake Server looks like a cake server or pie server and can be used to lift and serve pie or cake, however this piece can also properly serve solid jellies. It would have taken a while for someone just to have learned which of these pieces were used for which occasion. God forbid one use a regular cake server when the occasion called for a Jelly/Cake Server.

(Shown in Stratford by International)

Cracker Spoon

The every day Cracker Spoon, used to scoop and serve crackers. I think most likely oyster and soup crackers (I don't think saltines would fit well in the scoop.) There is a pierced and solid. Here are examples of both.

Old English by Towle (7 1/2 inches)

Ice Cream Slicer

Don't confuse this with an ice cream knife, the Ice Cream Slicer is different. There was a time when ice cream was made like large blocks of ice and very hard. This utensil was used to slice the ice cream from these blocks into pieces that would fit nicely into serving dishes and on plates.

(Shown in Old Master by Towle)