Silver, English (London), 1632-3; mark of Richard Crosse

Silver, two-pronged, the flat handle slightly tapered with a square notched end. The handle engraved with the crests of John Manners, Earl of Rutland and his wife Frances Montagu. The condition of the fork was described as 'slightly bent and dented' when it entered the V&A.

The two crests engraved on the handle of this fork show it was made for John Manners and his wife Frances Montagu. John (1604–1679) was the eldest son of George Manners (d. 1623), of Nether Haddon, Derbyshire. John studied at Queens' College, Cambridge from where he graduated as Master of Arts in 1621, and entered the Inner Temple in November of that year. He succeeded to his father's estate in Haddon, Leicestershire, in 1623 and in 1628 married Frances (bap. 1613, d. 1671), the daughter of Edward Montagu, Baron Montagu of Boughton, and Frances, daughter of Thomas Cotton of Conington, Huntingdonshire. The death of his cousin George, seventh Earl of Rutland, in March 1641 brought him the title of eighth Earl. He was a moderate, if unenthusiastic politician. He was made lord lieutenant of Derbyshire by parliamentary ordinance in March 1642, and later in his life served as lord lieutenant of Leicestershire for a decade (1667-1677). He seems to have undertaken little foreign travel, with the exception of a three year period following his graduation in 1621, when he obtained a licence to travel abroad for three years. It may have been during this period of travel that he became acquainted with Continental fashions for forks, which were still considered a novelty in England in the mid-seventeenth century.
The fork's maker, Richard Crosse, was apprenticed to London spoonmaker Robert Jygges in 1625. He registered different versions of his mark and seems to have specialised in the production of flatware (see Jackson: 1989, p. 116 and Kent: 1981, p. 44).
The Museum acquired the fork from Walter H. Willson, 28 King St, St James's, London SW1. (A body of subscribers made a contribution of £57 4s to the purchase price of £100.) Willson, who had displayed the fork in his shop to assist the Museum's efforts in fundraising for its purchase, also made a number of silver copies in the 1930s. For examples of these copies that have appeared recently on the market, see Metalwork Section object file.

Historical significance: This is the earliest English hallmarked silver fork known to survive. It would originally have been part of a set. A note dated 27 August 1924 in the Metalwork Section register, by the former Keeper of the Department H. P. Mitchell, records that 'Lord Granby to-day showed me a silver spoon, with handle of the same form similarly notched, engraved with the same two crests (but put on sideways), and with the same hall-mark and maker's mark, which has been found lately under a floor at Haddon Hall. The bowl is of the usual elliptical shape of a "puritan" spoon.'

This is the earliest-known hallmarked silver fork made in an English workshop. On the back of the handle are mark of the maker (London spoon-maker Richard Crosse), and three marks to show the quality of the silver was approved by the London assay office in 1632-3.
Forks were originally used at table to serve sticky sweets, such as preserved ginger, or to secure meat as it was carved. Food was brought to the mouth using a spoon, the point of a knife, or the fingers. The use of forks for this purpose was still a novelty in seventeenth-century England, where writers tended to consider the practice an affectation imported from Italy.

M.358-1923