In a kitchen setting, warm spoons are required in the preparation of certain dishes: for instance, quenelles de faisan à la financière, ( pheasant dumplings with a ragout garnish made from cocks' combs, foie gras and truffles). To form the quenelles or dumplings, two large tablespoons are required, 'one placed in warm water, the other filled with force-meat, giving it a slight round shape . . . the surface is then smoothed over with a small knife, dipped (only at the last moment) in warm water. When the quenelle is moulded, it must be taken out with the other warm spoon.' (Urbain Dubois, Artistic Cookery, London, 1870, p. 53)

Of course, no chef would need a special vessel in which to dip his spoons in hot water. But it was a different matter in a well-appointed dining room in high Victorian t.mes s. As befitting the age of invention, all sorts of accessories to dining became available. In 1869 the writer William Sawyer ridiculed this craving for innovation in an essay entitled 'A Victim of Patents' about a fictitious friend, Mr. Tackleboy, heir-apparent to a wealthy but all-too-healthy uncle. 'At anything new [Tackleboy's] eyes would brighten like an antiquary's at anything old. His house was his patent castle. . . It was pleasant to see him dine. His table was a torment by reason of his patented aids to enjoyment. What with his radical carver, iris spoon-warmer, and folding cruets; his self-acting gravy-helper, excelsior asparagus-tongs, and duplex plate-warmer; his royal potato-parer, imperial cucumber-slicer, and oriental digester, to say nothing of patent wine-lifts, corkscrews, oxygen-generators, appetite-stimulators and the rest of it.' (Mary Elizabeth Braddon, editor, Belgravia, A London Magazine, July 1869, pp. 51-57)

A reference to spoon warmers in a 2004 edition of Architectural Digest suggested that a collects ion of them shaped as nautilus shells were Georgian in date. Nothing could be further from the truth! When 'A Victim of Patents' was published the spoon warmer among Tackleboy's gadgets was actually something of a novelty. The very first design for such an object was filed at the Patent Office Design Registry in London on 11 June 1868 by Cartwright & Woodward, manufacturing silversmiths and platers of Birmingham. Five other designs for spoon warmers were registered that same year, two in July and two in November by Atkin Brothers, silversmiths and platers of Truro works, Birmingham, and one, in the form of a boat, in November to be made in glazed earthenware (majolica) by Minton & Co. of Stoke-on-Trent.

Further design patents for spoon warmers were granted in England, mainly in the 1870s and '80s. Apparently, the fad for warming spoons never caught on in the United States, but eastwards across the Atlantic it would appear that no hostess with any pretensions to modernity could be without one. As early as December 1868, Mappin & Webb advertised among its 'ELECTRO-SILVER PLATE' a range of useful items, including 'KETTLES, SPOON WARMERS, SOUFFLET DISHES.'

Various theories have been advanced as to how spoon warmers were used. Decorative they certainly are, but the best explanation as to their function is that warm spoons or ladles are more suitable for serving gravy than cold. Indeed, an even earlier Mappin & Webb advertisement for its London branches, dating from September 1868 lists 'SPOONS and FORKS. - 2000 DOZEN always ready. GRAVY SPOON WARMERS. - Electro-silver, 16s. 6d.; best quality, 25s.; ditto engraved, 35s.' (The Field, The Country Gentleman's Newspaper, Saturday, 19 September 1868, p. 29d)

Besides their practical use, the novelty spoon warmer in the shape of a conch or a yawning dolphin, a skiff or a knight's helmet with hinged visor was a godsend for those at their wits' end trying to find something suitable yet inexpensive, remarkable, even amusing for a wedding present. One lucky bride in 1910, Mrs. William Dove of Bedford was given two shell-shaped spoon warmers along with a 'silver fire-proof breakfast dish and lamp,' 'six patent saucer plates,' a 'patent silver jam spoon' and many more essential items for the up-to-date home. (The Bedfordshire Mercury, Friday, 29 April 1910, p. 7d/e) Spoon warmers were staple wedding present material until the late 1920s, by which t.mes their production appears to have ceased and only 'antique' examples were available.