ich knives, forks, and spoons have in many instances been
preserved. From the curios in museums and from family treasures it is
evident that much of the cutlery has been presented as donations to the
housekeeping outfit of a newly-married couple, or given as presentation
sets or pieces on some special occasion; just as cutlery is often chosen
for presentation purposes to-day.

From the sixteenth century onwards such sets have been made and
presented. The recently arranged cutlery room in the Victoria and Albert
Museum at South Kensington, that great art treasure-house of the nation,
contains an exceptionally representative collection. In some instances
the examples are only single specimens which may have been presented
separately, or they may have formed part of a more complete set. There
are sets of carving knives with long blades, forks with double prongs,
and broad-pointed flat-bladed servers, many of them etched and engraved
all over. Even after carvers were regular features on the table the
small knives and forks were brought by the guests who were bidden to the
feast, for it must be remembered that it was not until 1670 that Prince
Rupert brought the first complete set of forks to this country.

In the Victoria and Albert Museum there is a very beautiful little
knife, the handle of which is delicately carved, the group which
constitutes the design representing our first parents standing beneath
the Tree of Knowledge, in the midst of which the wily serpent is
cunningly concealed.

Another pair consisting of a very handsome knife and fork have handles
representing animals and grotesque figures. These were the work of Dutch
artists in the seventeenth century; but curiously enough the quaint
leather case in which this knife and fork are enclosed was evidently of
earlier date, for it has upon it "1598." Some of the cases of leather
made by the _cuir boulli_ process are circular, there being separate
holes for each of the knives they were intended to contain. Some of the
knives are very curious, especially those with wooden or horn handles of
sixteenth and early seventeenth-century make, which have been found in
considerable numbers in Moorfields and Finsbury, along with sharpening
steels. The ordinary table knives of a little later date, when they were
sold in half-dozens and dozens along with two-pronged forks, were
decorative, their handles being made of materials varying in quality and
in the excellence of their