Home By Desig n By Cy nthia Adams

The Knife at Rest

It’s th e lit tl e things — an d somet imes th e finer things

By C y n t hi a a da mS We were lunching in rare style. Good food, good company, a splendid table before us — and ever yone was in excellent spirits. The table? It looked like a page torn from Architectural Digest: heirloom china, delicate cr ystal and antique French silver ware on creamy linens.

A n ar tist and her close f r iend paused mid-sentence, suddenly noticing a set of what t ur ned out to be silver k nife rests.

T he ar tist’s mouth opened, then closed.

W h at are those? She pointed to the elegant silver rectangles positioned above the antique table k nife.

Our host, an enthusiastic collector, explained: they were, quite simply, a resting place for a used k nife, which kept linens safe f rom the g reasy slur r y on the plate.

T he ar tist began to speculate about tired k nives requir ing rest.

“Too wear y to cut it!”

“Ly ing dow n on the job!”

“Stop me before I cut in again.”

She held a handsome k nife up for inspection. “A f ter they rest, then what?”

“T hey obv iously move in for the k ill,” she quipped.

We laughed ourselves silly, enjoy ing the word play.

T he f un added to a good mea l at a g reat table. A s the conversation evolved, someone mentioned how we, af ter a ll, eat w ith our eyes. Tr ue, yet times have changed.

T here’s a lways f a sh ion a nd h istor y at work in our k itchens a nd d in ing ro oms, a s go o d ide a s c ome a nd go f rom f avor. A k n ife rest is st r a ig ht out of a n E d it h W har ton set t ing: a cla ssic remna nt of fi ne d in ing.

W hat other objects are f rom tables past, things once used and now idling in the drawer?

T hose who love W har ton w i l l re el f rom t he pronounc ement s of B ob Vi la, a for mer S e ars’ pitchma n who rose to f a me w it h T his Ol d Hou se.

Despite T his Old House, Vila has ver y moder n opinions.

Here’s a shor t list on his outmoded and, therefore, verboten pick s: fanc y fork s — including oyster fork s, fish fork s, sa lad fork s, pick le fork s and desser t fork s. A ll out.

Other things deemed pointless by Vila: but ter pick s. (T he but ter pick is used for choosing /skewer ing single pats of but ter.)

Napk in r ings are a lso a thing of the past, Vila insists. I am glad my mother did not live to read this. If she were not dead a lready, this news would doubtless k ill her.

Dedicated stemware is a lso outmoded, he claims. He says that it is completely moder n to use a stemless glass for a ll w ines. In fact, one multipur pose glass t w ill suf fice. Even, dear God, a Mason jar.

To a ll my f r iends and family, I am sor r y to convey this, not only because we are a ll stemware-str uck, but because I persona lly ow n tons of outmoded glassware by Vila’s standards, including champag ne coupes.

I shudder to imag ine the Queen being ser ved her beloved Bollinger in a pick le jar. T he mind reels.

A lso, Vila says egg cups are déclassé.

If you followed T he Crown, you a lready k now the Queen takes a mor ning egg in an egg cup and toast in a proper toast rack.

Jelly spoons are another fata lit y of Vila’s list, and so he would banish lit tle Lilibet f rom tak ing her mar ma lade w ith a proper jelly spoon. (BT W, did you k now that the Br itish ca ll congea led sa lads and gelatins like Jell- O “ jelly”?)

Table r unners, something many of us have clung to long af ter par ting w ith other life niceties, are v ile to Vila. Tr y telling that to Williams- Sonoma.

T he shocker on Vila’s list may require sit ting dow n (in the event you prefer to read standing): wedding china. He deems it outmoded. Dated. Unnecessar y. He asser ts that we are a nation of casua l diners who no longer eat of f of fanc y plates.

But any Souther ner w ith a thimble f ull of sense k nows there is no separating a Souther n ga l f rom her wedding china. His claim is a step too far.

Like our g randmother’s Blue Willow, we k now and love it f rom the mists of time. We eat of f our ancestra l plates, even if chipped.

We stand in line to admire the W hite House china pat ter ns.

W hen the late Julia R eed was promoting the enter taining g uide, Julia Reed’s South, she ta lked about using antique w ine r insers for flowers and old silver ashtrays for sa lt cellars. “Use ever y thing,” she said. If it chips, it chips.

A nd the unpretentious R eed added something wor th noting:

“W hat I love about the South in genera l is that there is nothing too sma ll to celebrate, and if you’re rea lly luck y you lear n about g race and sma ll joys, which are, af ter a ll, what make up big lives.”

T he clincher? “Keep the beautif ul things a live.”

L ong live the k nife rest. PS

Cynthia Adams, a contr ibuting editor of O.Henr y, is looking for a set of antique knife rests.