Chapter VIII

_Antiquarian Value of Ancient Table Furniture—People of
Egypt—Specimens of their Spoons—Humorists—Other Spoons of Ivory,
Bronze and Wood—Salt and Salt-Cellar—Roast Goose in Egypt—Golden
Spoons of the Tabernacle and Temple—Simpula of Wood, Bronze and
Gilt—Reflections._

Having given samples of primitive spoons formed of shells, horn, and wood, we might proceed to the introduction of those made of pewter, brass, iron, silver and other metals—of which some were undoubtedly made in ages anterior to those of history; but all would be sheer conjecture. The fortunes of the first races of men have not been recorded—much less the adventures of their spoons. We shall therefore confine our future observations chiefly to actual specimens, arranged in chronological order and beginning with the oldest extant.

It would have been an agreeable task to have traced a connection in the table utensils of the famous nations of old—in those exported from Tyre, and such as were produced in the silversmith shops of Persepolis or Troy; but no pattern-card of Tyrian or Sidonian spoonmakers has reached us, nor, any specimens placed on the sideboards of Priam or Nebuchadnezzar. The blank might indeed be in a great measure filled by a few from the neighborhood of Memphis and Thebes—such as old Egyptian artists supplied their own and other countries with, when the useful and ornamental arts flourished in the Nilotic valley. Such would have given us an idea of prevailing tastes in the forms and decorations of the implement. We could at a glance have compared them with our own, and told in a moment whether Moses and Joshua, Nehemiah or Ezra—whether Egyptian gentlemen or Jewish maidens took pottage with implements fashioned like ours. How interesting would a sight of such spoons have been! What would not lovers of antiquity give to behold them, or for drawings and descriptions of them! Does the reader enter into the spirit and feelings of such philosophers? Does he take pleasure in tracing the characters of remote people in vestiges of their arts—ascertaining their domestic manners in their culinary utensils, and the state of the useful professions among them in products of their workshops? Well, spoons made and used by the old inhabitants of Egypt _are_ in existence! The assortment is limited, but it might have been less; and small as it is, we are enabled to produce drawings of ‘a round dozen.’

What a wonderful people were these children of Ham! The greatest benefactors of their race the world ever saw, they seem to have lived only for posterity—to perpetuate the useful arts—to hand to their successors their knowledge; and lest future physiologists should dispute about their persons, they have come down themselves, and submitted their bodies to our inspection—not in small numbers, but in millions! The catacombs have for ages been quarried like coal mines for fuel, and are yet said to contain more mummies than Egypt living men. How surpassing strange is it, then, that we should have before us spoons used (perhaps) three or four thousand years since, with the men and women they nourished—the identical hands that handled them—the very mouths they entered! What people but one ever did this much for posterity; and what people will ever repeat it? Four thousand years hence (or even one thousand) antiquarians, on referring to our days and our arts, might as well search the soil for our souls as our bodies.

Is the reader anxious to look on spoons made under the Ptolemies or Pharaohs? Let him exercise a little patience, and, ere he casts his eyes on the next illustration, think within himself what can they be like—of what forms are the bowls—do they resemble shells—are all of one shapes—how decorated, if decorated at all? Then the handles—are they flat like modern ones, round or square, plain or carved? And of what materials are these relics of ancient days?

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SPOONS.
]

See! there is half a dozen—each of a different pattern, and of assorted sizes, too; unless, as is most likely, the artist who copied them has not drawn all to the same scale. The originals are in the British Museum. Do not they, few as they are, present about as much variety as every species of modern spoons? But if they do—if these stragglers, picked up among tombs or ploughed out of the soil, exhibit such fertility of design, what rich displays of the article must the shelves of goldsmiths, hardware and fancy stores in Memphis, Thebes, and On have afforded!

[As we have unfortunately little or no specific information respecting the originals of several of our illustrations, the reader will, we presume, be better pleased with some reflections than with absolute silence. It is awkward to introduce specimens without comment; hence, where descriptive data are not within reach, we shall occasionally offer such remarks, serious or otherwise, as the figures themselves may suggest.]

Not two of the bowls in the preceding spoons are alike; and as for the handles, they are as different as they well could be. In _Fig. 1._ the bowl represents a slightly scolloped shell, supported on the head of a human figure, which serves as a handle, and whose feet rest on the capital of a column. The handle is short compared to the size of the bowl, (a remark applicable to others,) but it was no doubt proportioned to the particular purpose for which such spoons were made. The pattern seems to have been borrowed from architecture; but there is something bizarre in making Atlantes bear spoons instead of entablatures or domes of temples. The Egyptians were great humorists, and freely indulged in burlesque. If we could suppose a joke was intended in the design, the figure might be taken for a caricature of Atlas or Hercules bearing the celestial or terrestrial sphere, as an intimation that the spoon was all the world to gastronomes, its effects a heavy burden fat men groaned under, and its pleasures their highest delight. In this respect the figure is not an inapt representation of some people’s achievements in life.

In _Fig. 2._ the handle appears as if turned in a lathe: where it joins the bowl it assumes the form of the lotus flower, out of whose leaves the bowl like a ripe fruit is seen to rise. The shape of the bowl is precisely like that of ours, viz: a longitudinal segment of an egg shell.

_Fig. 3._ is of wood, and very unlike a modern one in shape, unless compared to a marrow spoon. The bowl resembles the cartouche or royal oval, in which the names of the kings of Egypt are inscribed in hieroglyphics on the monuments. It obviously could only have raised fluid matter from shallow dishes or plates. The ornaments may be arbitrary, but we should rather suppose they had an allegorical meaning. The ibex or gazelle, an animal which supplied the chief material for broth; and the fish, with sprigs of parsley or other herbs, in their mouths, as if ready for the table, were certainly not inappropriate decorations of an implement employed in transmitting portions of these victims to the human palate.

_Fig. 4._—a bronze spoon, and more nearly resembling the modern one than any of the preceding. The shank is made to represent the human hand and arm—a copy of the _first_ spoon handles, when cockle and muscle shells only were in use. Perhaps there is an allusion to that custom in this ancient implement; but the artist did not forget to introduce a victim of the caldron or spit: he has made the handle terminate with the head of a goose, a bird in much repute with the Apician literati of Egypt, and as such often figured on spoons.

_Fig. 5._ Here we have a spoon representing a fish swimming into a kettle, as if anxious to be macerated and served up at table. The material is wood, and the bowl circular. One part of the fish is made to turn on a pin near the tail, so as to expose a small cavity or box in the thick part of the body. This was probably a sportman’s or traveller’s portable spoon, and the cavity occupied with salt or other condiment—a feature of some interest, since it shows us that ingenuity in such matters dates back to remote periods. In _Plate V._ is a spoon with a concealed toothpick, an instrument more appropriate to a knife or fork. The Egyptian artist adhered more closely to propriety in introducing a receptacle for seasoning, especially in an utensil employed only with fluid aliments.

_Fig. 6._ is the plainest of the whole, but not devoid of ornament: the handle, which is long and stout, having one extremity carved into a horse’s head, and the other a projecting piece or shoulder that unites it to the bowl.

Another group, taken from Wilkinson’s ‘_Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians_,’ will be found on the following page.

_Fig. 1._ is of ivory, about four inches long, and preserved in the Public Museum at Berlin. It was discovered at Thebes along with a deep stand or chest containing a number of small jars or bottles—supposed to have been part of the stock of an apothecary, or to have belonged to the toilet of a Theban beauty. The style of the handle of this spoon is unique, and independent of the carved head, displays much taste.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SPOONS.
]

The implement itself is not unlike some of our small spoons—possibly it belonged to an ancient salt-cellar. Salt, it will be remembered, was used at table in remote antiquity just as it is at this day, and several superstitions were associated with it. Omens drawn from spilling it, observes Fosbroke, are equally antique with its use. The salt-cellar was placed on the table with the first dish containing offerings to the Gods. Its presence was supposed to sanctify the food, and great importance was attached to keeping it bright and clean. Fabricius, the conqueror of Pyrrhus, was distinguished for the simplicity of his manners: history informs us that a small salt-cellar, with horn feet, was the only article of silver in his house.

_Fig. 2._—of bronze, eight inches long, and with a flat handle; perhaps the common table-spoon of the people, occupying the place of the modern iron or pewter one. The form of the bowl is very like that of wooden and pewter spoons of the last century. Here we have the head of the goose again, one of the favorite, though certainly not most healthy viands of both priests and people. The occupants of the temples, says Herodotus, were not obliged to live on their private means, but each individual had sacred victuals ready dressed assigned him, and in addition a daily allowance of beef and _goose_, (ii. 37.) In the tombs near the pyramids are representations of dinner parties, at which the goose figures as a prominent dish. Other scenes exhibit Egyptian cookery in detail, where the victim is undergoing the various operations preparatory to its appearance at table. The end of the handle of _Fig. 2._ being curved was doubtless designed to suspend the spoon over the edge of a vessel, or over a nail or cord. Several utensils are seen hanging from lines in an Egyptian kitchen, portrayed in the tomb of Rameses III. at Thebes.

_Fig. 3._—another bronze table spoon. The handle is round and tapered, partly formed in the lathe, enriched with carving, and having on the whole a tasteful appearance.

_Fig. 4._—also of bronze, found at Thebes by Mr. Burton: smaller than 2 or 3, it was probably a child’s spoon. It is the plainest of Egyptian spoons yet found.

_Fig. 5._—a small wooden spoon, formed like a spade—a shape so singular that it has been refused a place at the dining table. It is, however, a genuine spoon. The Romans used such, (_See Plate II._) and similar formed implements are not uncommon with the Chinese, as will be noticed in a future page,—a people among whom many primitive arts and implements are preserved in their purity.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SPOONS.
]

In the first two figures above we have another elegant variety of the spoon. They represent the back and front of a wooden one. The handle is round, straight, and short, and handsomely set off with a wreath, terminating with leaves at the junction with the bowl. The latter is long and pointed, and seems well calculated for a pap spoon for infants—a purpose for which it was probably designed. In comparing this implement with those which have preceded it, some readers will be agreeably surprised at finding so great a diversity of forms in so simple a thing; but ere they arrive at the end of these pages the feeling will probably rise into wonder; and yet the whole of the illustrations embraced in this essay are but part of what might have been introduced.

_Fig. 3._ resembles one figured on page 126; but it is not like that formed of metal, but of ivory—a circumstance from which we may infer that the goose and human hand were staple ornaments of Egyptian spoons, and frequently adopted with every material of which the latter were made.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SHELL AND SPOON.
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The relationship between spoons and their natural originals is exhibited in the above figure. The shell is an artificial one, of alabaster, and is among the antiquities preserved in Alnwick Castle. Its dimensions are those of an ordinary mussel shell or table spoon. The minikin spoon figured within it is supposed to have belonged to a lady’s toilet. Where the handle unites with the bowl it assumes the form of the favorite lotus.

No better proof could be adduced of the refined taste of Pharaonic artists than this copying after nature; for it is the perfection of skill to follow her instructions. In the infancy of the arts man runs from her, preferring puerile conceits and monstrous figures; but as the mind ripens and the judgment matures, he returns to the only true teacher and guide.

We are not aware of any _silver_ or _golden_ spoons having been disinterred. It is certain the wealthy classes had such, and as the richest taste and greatest skill were lavished on them, it is to be regretted that none have been discovered. The first spoons mentioned in history were golden ones, made by Egyptian artists, viz: those furnished for the Tabernacle. (Exod. xxv. 29.) So were those presented by the princes of Israel at the dedication of the sanctuary. (Numb. vii.) Is it said they were fabricated by Aholihab and Bezaleel, or workmen employed by them, that is, by Israelites? True, but in every sense of the word, except as regards religion, and even that need hardly be excepted, these men were Egyptians—natives of the land, both they and their fathers, for many generations. What did the people whom Moses led out of Egypt know, except what they learned there? And what had they, but what they got there? If he himself was learned, it was with ‘the wisdom of Egypt.’ Neither had they nor their ancestors any other country. In Egypt they were born and brought up, and when they entered Canaan, it was to them a foreign land.

The Jews always neglected the useful arts. The splendid mechanics who left Egypt with Moses died, and all their generation, in the wilderness. With them the arts were buried, and were never resuscitated on the other side of Jordan. When Solomon built the temple he had workmen from Tyre; it was a Phenician founder who made the bronze and golden bowls, basins, snuffers, spoons, &c. required. (1. Kings vii.—2. Kings xxv.) Both spoons and ladles, or simpula, were extensively used in Pagan worship. A few of those of ancient Egypt are figured below.

EGYPTIAN LADLES OR SIMPULA.
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Simpula have been found of great variety of forms and materials. Those of bronze were frequently _gilt_, which made them richer in ornament, and prevented wine or acids retained in them from being contaminated with solutions of copper. They were used chiefly for dipping fluids from amphoræ or jars. The two upper ones in the cut are of bronze, in the Berlin Museum. The first has a _folding joint_ in the middle of the handle; and the next one has its handle lengthened or shortened (according to the depth of the vessel) by one part sliding behind the other. _Fig. 3_ represents an extremely small wooden ladle; the fixed part of the handle being only five inches in length, and the sliding rod which rises and falls in a groove extending down the centre, about the thickness of a darning needle. The last (_Fig. 4_) in Mr. Wilkinson’s possession, is eighteen inches long, the bowl three inches deep and nearly the same, in diameter. It is of bronze and has been gilt.

In taking leave of Egyptian spoons figured in this chapter, one can hardly avoid thinking of the persons they belonged to, of the families of their owners, the mouths they fed, the food they assisted to cook and serve up, of the scenes of festivity, of sickness and sorrow, of high life and low life, in which they took a part; of the workmen who made them, the merchants who sold them, and the many strange conversations held in their presence! In their forms we have the turns of thought of old artists; nay, casts of the very thoughts themselves; such as inspired the cunning artists, companions of Bezaleel or of Hiram, and like them, skilful to devise curious works in gold and silver, brass and iron, ivory and pearl. We fancy we can almost see a Theban spoonmaker’s face brighten up as the image of a new pattern crossed his mind; behold him sketch it on papyrus, and watch every movement of his chisel or graver as he gradually embodied the thought, and published it in one of the forms portrayed on these pages—securing an accession of customers and a corresponding reward in an increase of profits. We take it for granted that piratical artisans were not permitted to pounce on every popular invention which the wit of another brought forth. Had there been no checks to unprincipled usurpers of other men’s productions, the energies of inventors would have been paralyzed and the arts could hardly have attained the perfection they did among some of the famous people of old.

What a transient, ephemeral being is man! How short is his life compared even to that of a spoon! Notwithstanding his pride and his power, the grasp of his intellect, the noise he makes in the world, and the lasting wonders he works, he is himself a bubble—no sooner inflated than burst! The meanest of his labors survive, while he vanishes as vapor. Probably not less than one hundred generations, including some of the mightiest spirits of Egypt, have passed away since the implements delineated above were made! Strange that a thing should endure longer than the head which conceived and the hands that formed it; that a pot should live longer than a potter. Here have we the identical spoons which, twenty or thirty centuries ago, men, women, and children handled at dinner!—individuals perhaps contemporary with those who encamped with Moses at Elim, or fought under Joshua at Jericho; or, it may be, such as were acquainted with Plato or Solon, with Helen and Herodotus, when these Grecian wanderers were in the land of Mizraim.