(Conjectural sketch by Sidney E.
King.)]
Table Accessories
In the small houses at Jamestown the kitchen also served as the dining
room. During the early years, many settlers probably ate with wooden
spoons out of wooden bowls and trenchers, and drank from mugs made of
horn, wood, or leather. As the colony became well established, these
crude utensils and vessels were used less frequently and were gradually
replaced with ones made of pottery, metalware, and glassware. None of
the perishable woodenware, horn, or leather items have been found at
Jamestown, but a large assortment of more durable objects used at the
table have been recovered. Space permits only brief descriptions of the
more common types unearthed.
KNIVES, FORKS, AND SPOONS
The table knives found at Jamestown vary in length from 6-3/8 to 8-1/4
inches. Most of them have either bone or ivory handles, although 3 have
embossed brass handles; and 1, found in a late 17th-century well, has an
exquisite handle of banded agate.
The forks in the collection also have bone or ivory handles, the
majority displaying 2 steel prongs, or tines. The number of prongs,
however, is no positive identification of any particular period, as many
English forks of the mid-17th century had 3 prongs, and a few had 4
prongs.
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