wedding, and other, spoons

When I first got married, wa-a-ay back in 1971, my mum organised the younger siblings, step-siblings and friends when it came to gift buying. (She knew what she wanted me to have.)

I received three cutlery sets, each with settings for four people, but all with the same design.
So I had enough matching cutlery to be able to hold a dinner party for twelve people if I was ever inclined to do so.
I also received three dinner sets, each with a setting for four people, but all with the same design.
So I had enough matching crockery to be able to hold a dinner party for twelve people if I was ever inclined to do so.
(I never was inclined to do so...)

Now, all these years later, these two teaspoons and a knife, are all that remain of the original settings. I don't remember what happened to the rest, I'm not one to lose things, but disappear they did.

Here is a close-up of the design on the handles.

In between then and now, there has (have?) been three different cutlery sets, one that came as a bonus package along with a stoneware dinnerset I bought, long since passed on to one of the kids, a cheap (and cheap looking) black plastic handled set which I didn't like for very long as the handles started falling off, a more expensive black plastic handled set which lasted right up until 2010.

Then, two days after L left, in a euphoric rush of freedom spending, I bought my current cutlery set.
I'd planned on lay-bying it, but when I went to the store it was on sale for half price, so it came home with me the same day.

It's a setting for eight people, which is more than I need, (unless 7 people all drop in at once for coffee and cake) but I liked the design and the way they balanced in my hands. I'd been eyeing them off for weeks.

Here is a close-up of the design.

I have two teaspoons left from a set of six that my mum gave me as an engagement gift.

When she was a child, her Dad had won them as a prize for his show rabbits.

Silver plated, in a box lined with blue velvet, I was supposed to keep them to pass on to my first-born girl as her engagement gift, then she would do the same and so on.

Mum didn't tell me I was supposed to do this, so of course I used these very pretty spoons and when mum eventually came to visit me, she wasn't happy. Too bad. 

The silver spoons....

...not looking too shabby, even after years and years of stirring my coffee.

(I'm fairly confident I know what happened to the other four, but that tale shall remain untold)

Here's a close-up of the design.

Simple, elegant...not at all ostentatious, which is a good thing, because I don't like stuff that's too show-offy.

That's my camera reflection making the nearer handle look darker.