To avoid sticky fingers while eating a popular sugar-coated treat called "suckets," medieval and Renaissance banquet guests began using a novel implement: the fork. And to measure a man’s social status, one needed look no further than the knife with which he carved his meat. "Status was once conveyed by the lavish use of materials - coral, enameled metal or carved ivory - in knife handles," explains Sarah Coffin, curator of 17th- and 18th-century decorative arts at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City.

Just as these early forks and knives were once in vogue, the utensils on your dining room table constitute the newest chapter in the fascinating history of culinary design. Much of that story is revealed in "Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500-2006," a Cooper-Hewitt exhibition that takes a look at how dining utensils have changed in the last 500 years - from the materials used to make them to how they are shaped for specific uses and the elaborate motifs, such as flowers and leaves, that decorate their surfaces.

"The tools of the table are constantly evolving, yet they still have the power to transform the basic ritual of eating into a social celebration," Coffin explains. "Sitting down at a table set with china you love and flatware that pleases you is marvelous. It enhances even a simple meal."

Traveling cutlery
Five hundred years ago, neither hosts nor inns provided guests with eating utensils. "Members of the upper class never traveled without their own set of cutlery," Coffin says. From the Renaissance to the 18th century, sheaths, folding handles and finely decorated cases of leather, wood and ivory were integral to the design of flatware. A set of Northern Italian flatware with mother-of-pearl handles that fits neatly into its leather traveling case is on view in the exhibition. It was undoubtedly a status symbol for a family around 1600. This section of the exhibition then jumps forward to examine traveling flatware of the 20th century, namely utensils used in the dining rooms of trains, planes and ocean liners.

In the 17th century, specialized spoon sizes and shapes began appearing with the arrival in Europe of beverages such as tea and coffee. As table manners became more rigid, oval spoon bowls were introduced to help avoid slurping.

Yet these culinary changes were "subtle compared with those that started in the mid-19th century, particularly in the United States, when specialized pieces of flatware in numerous patterns and styles exploded on the scene," Coffin says. "New technologies and materials, combined with broader wealth and a fervor for invention, shaped the design of flatware for generations."

For example, during the Gilded Age (1878-1889), elaborate settings of flatware became popular. One flatware pattern offered 146 different pieces for each place setting. "No one set the table with all of the tools at the same time, but can you imagine keeping track of 146 pieces times eight or 12 settings?" Coffin asks. In the 1920s, then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover introduced legislation limiting flatware patterns to just 55 pieces.

In the late 19th century a broader variety of foods became available, leading to the appearance of uniquely shaped forks designed for specific foods, such as sardines, olives, scallops and cherries.

Ergonomics, children’s flatware, 20th-century modern design and the use of natural forms, such as leaves and animals, to decorate flatware are other elements covered in the exhibition.

Detective work
Coffin, along with Contemporary Design Curator Ellen Lupton and Darra Goldstein, a food historian and founding editor of Gastronomica magazine, were the curators of “Feeding Desire,” which premiered at the Cooper-Hewitt in the summer and will travel in 2007. In preparation for the exhibition, Coffin researched and cataloged some 2,000 eating and serving utensils used mostly in Europe and the United States.

"I was looking for works of great craftsmanship and execution," Coffin says, along with pieces that give insight into social customs, including how people entertained and what they ate.

Although many of the objects in the exhibition came from the Cooper-Hewitt’s collection, Coffin still had to play the role of detective to date and identify some of the pieces. On a few of the older implements, the hallmarks - tiny punches or stamped-in marks identifying a silversmith - had worn away. Coffin turned to other sources, such as wills and purchase orders, to determine their provenance.

"Once I determined where part of an object, such as the handle, was made or who made it," she explains, "that gave me clues to the geography of the maker of a utensil’s blade, bowl or tines."

Coffin also compared unidentified pieces in the collection with objects featured in historic paintings and etchings. "Dutch still-life paintings, for instance, often feature very specific knives and flatware," she points out. "This is certainly a clue to what kind of knife was being used in Holland at that time." A silver "St. Thomas" or "St. Matthew" apostle spoon from Exeter, England, from about 1661, is featured in the exhibition. Silver was a preferred material for spoons because the metal does not chemically interact with or change the taste of the food it touches.

"Feeding Desire," Coffin expects, will leave visitors hungry—not for food, but for the long-held tradition of eating as a gracious social occasion.

"Sharing food can be an expression of love and power, duty and honor, knowledge and taste," Coffin says. "Dining is one of the most cherished social traditions. Done properly, it is one of the most civilized aspects of living."