Personal Effects Mango Forks January 2015
Question: Jerry, what kind of fork is
this? Its mother of pearl with a sterling band. Both are marked
Henckels near the tines. I've had them for over twenty years. I've
been curious about them all this time. What are they worth? Thanks
for looking at them. I enjoy the articles.
Two Mother of Pearl handled mango forks. |
Answer: I had to do a little digging on
this one. I've always had an appreciation for silver flatware, but
this one had me stumped. Finally, I found out what it was. Leave it
to those persnickety Victorians to create something like this. You
have, of all things, a mango fork. Cool isn't it? This was a fork
that was designed for wealthy patrons, for a fruit that only the
wealthy could afford. Let me tell you, this fork, its history and its
manufacture is elusive. I could find very little on it... at first.
If Replacements.com doesn't have, one single listing for a mango
fork, then its hard to find. I did find a few, on other sites, that
were obviously modern and fairly cheap. Nothing like these beautiful
pieces. There was one interesting posting, on an antique forum page,
that helped shed some light on these unique pieces. I found that
many, many times, these forks are mislabeled as cake forks, snail
forks, lobster picks, olive forks and chicken forks. I have no idea
what a chicken fork is. However, they are all wrong, as I've already
stated, this is a mango fork. Here's how it worked. A fruit knife was
used to cut off the top of the mango, about an inch, you should just
see the tip of the mango pit. The fork was held firmly in ones hand
and driven into the top of the mango. You should pierce the mango
pit, in that “joint” or ridge that goes around the pit. The
central long tine went into the pit and the two shorter tines were
anchored into the flesh of the fruit. Now stand your mango up on its
end, holding the fork firmly in your hand. Picking up your fruit
knife you scored the thick skin and peeled back that skin, revealing
its orange meat. Still holding the fork upright, use your knife to
slice off slabs and transfer those pieces to your dessert plate.
Then you would use your fruit fork and fruit knife to consume your
hard earned mango. Sounds complicated doesn't it? I think Carson the
butler from Downton Abbey would have trouble with this one There was
a reason to this madness. It separated the well to do folks from the
down trodden. If you couldn't pass table etiquette, then it was
likely that you'd not fare well in proper society and you would be
shunned. I'm going to say that your mango forks date to the later
1890's to the early 1900's. This was a grand time for formal dining.
Your forks were made by the J. A. Henckels Manufacturing Company in
Germany. They are a well known blade and table ware power house and
their knives can still be found in fine stores. I saw some all
sterling mango forks and many modern versions in stainless steel.
Yours are extra special with the pearl and sterling ferrels / bands
I love the mother of pearl handles. You don't find this thickness of
mother of pearl anymore. Value? In at a good antiques show I'd
expect to see them priced at $50.00 to $60.00 each. Congratulations
on owning the only mango forks I might see in my career. Maybe you
should try your hand at using them at your next dinner party. Or
maybe not. Thanks for sharing them with us.
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