So I have been talking with Mathew about spoon racks and thought I would put a few pictures of different types up here. These date from the days when everyone had their own personal wooden spoon which they washed and popped back in the rack. First a joined one, these are quite common in the antiques trade and most come from Wales late 19th C.
Next a couple from St Fagans folk life museum I love the gorgeous simplicity of this design.
And this one is an even nicer example being made entirely from small branchwood, the joint at the right hand end is part of the tree where the branch attaches to the main stem. The branch forms the handle and the main stem the rack.
And finally one from Skansen Open Air Museum in Stockholm, a most wonderful place.
These are inspirations to me. Please show more as you come upon them. I love the natural style.
Yeah great to see those Rob – thanks for putting them up. Is there a design where the spoons are hung on wooden pegs through a hole in the end of the handle ?
I especially like the Swedish one. Do the other ones have holes or a slot to fit the handles?
Thanks for all the comments they are inspirations to me too. I have not seen an old one with holes in handles but I do have some picutres somewhere of really nice modern ones made by a carver in Hungary with the rack having little hooks.Mostly the old Welsh ones simply have holes drilled for the handles but the nice old one made form a branch looks like it may be s lightly elongated lot. I don’t have other pics of it to check.
It strikes me that the wooden spoons on the pictures are pretty wide, while modern iron spoons are much longer more egg shape. Do you have any clue why?
I am not sure when metal spoons changed shape, in medieval times they were very much this shape too and it is a shape that works very well. They are not so much much wider as not so long and pointy as a modern metal spoon. Generally in use only the end of the spoon goes in the mouth and when I design a spoon I find it most comfortable if the end is fairly square, at a slight angle and not quite as wide as my mouth. The Swedish spoons second and third from left would be very good I think.