Spoons, knives, and forks encrusted with gems, or fashioned by hand in sterling silver twisted to look like ribbons: We are in the dawn of a new age of beautifully crafted eating utensils. But it’s hard to call it a trend. Indeed, since Homo sapiens first showed up on this planet 300,000 years ago, stylish diners have progressed past eating with our hands, or with twigs and bones, to inventing implements that do more than just transport food from plate to mouth.Chelsie CraigGlass mosaic cutlery set by Arthur Ristor. Records show that from the earliest days of the privileged classes, ambitious hosts have created tablewares out of precious materials. Beyond their utilitarian function, these very fine and often novel implements added exoticism, status, and sparkle to a table. There are surviving examples of eating utensils throughout history, from the bronze knives and forks and wooden spoons found in the tombs of the pharaohs to the silver spoons and ladles discovered intact in the ruins of Pompeii.Whether Viking, Greek, Mandarin, Ottoman, or Saxon, cutlery styles have continually evolved. The one constant: The most creative tablescapes have included artisanal cutlery of distinction and rarity. These objects, including Renaissance travelers’ bejeweled portable cutlery sets and 16th-century apostle spoons, were designed for dining, and also to dazzle and impress. Once the classic trio (spoon, knife, fork) was established, the race began for ever more elaborate versions. Precious and semiprecious gems, silver and gold, rare woods, coral, and ivory were transformed into utensils crafted with great originality and beauty.Chelsie CraigSterling silver and diamond ribbon cutlery set by Leo Costelloe. The Victorians, with their aspic sickles, grape scissors, and terrapin forks, took it to the next level by inventing an eating tool for every conceivable situation. Meanwhile, in Russia, the House of Fabergé supplied silver and gold tableware to imperial palaces (much of which was melted down by the Bolsheviks during the revolution). In the U.S., Tiffany & Co. was the Gilded Age go-to for elegant flatware services with pieces numbering in the hundreds.Many artists have taken a stab at designing cutlery over the years. In 1966 Claude Lalanne designed her iconic Iolas silverware—complete with forks, knives, spoons, implements for eating fish, and cake knives—in a design that mixed interlacing leaves with crustacean motifs. If that sounds Dalíesque, the surrealist himself created silver-gilt cutlery, including a three-pronged elephant fork with two ruby eyes. In the 1930s the mobile master Alexander Calder put his own spin on utensils with sets fashioned from brass, iron, and silver wire.Chelsie CraigThe Totemic Devotion Cutlery set by Alighieri with 24 karat gold plated stems. Today a new generation of artisans is creating cutlery that is as much sculpture, or table jewelry, as it is functional object. It’s a phenomenon driven by the rise of art and design fairs. The contemporary consumer has a feast of new choices, and the global market of patrons abounds. No matter what you may be eating or how you may be serving it, consider the thoughts of one of my brilliant aunts, who is also a wonderful hostess: “Always remember, eye appeal is half the meal.”Coffee spoons by Thalia Maria Silver.This story originally appeared in the May 2025 issue of Elle Decor. SUBSCRIBE

New Research By Shoving a Bed Frame Against the Door, This Pompeii Family Tried to Survive Mount Vesuvius’ Eruption Archaeologists are learning new details about the four individuals’ futile attempt to hide inside an ancient residence called the House of Helle and Phrixus A bed frame shoved against the door served as a makeshift barricade. Pompeii Archaeological Park In 79 C.E., Mount Vesuvius erupted, spewing ash and small volcanic pellets known as lapilli over the city of Pompeii. Nearly 1,950 years later, archaeologists are still sifting through the layers of debris and making remarkable discoveries about life—and death—in the ancient city. Researchers recently discovered four members of a family, including a child, who attempted to escape the eruption by barricading themselves inside a bedroom, according to a statement from the Pompeii Archaeological Park. Though their efforts were futile, their remains provide remarkable insight into the doomed city’s final moments. When the eruption began, most residents of Pompeii “had no clue what was happening,” Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the park and co-author of a new study published in the journal Scavi di Pompei, tells the New York Times’ Sara Novak. “Many thought the end of the world had come.” A majority of the 15,000 to 20,000 residents of Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum fled and survived the eruption. The four family members were among the roughly 2,000 Pompeians who remained when the city was destroyed. As Helle struggles in the sea, Phrixus reaches out to his sister from atop a flying ram. Pompeii Archaeological Park Archaeologists found the family’s remains in a small but stately residence known as the House of Helle and Phrixus, named after a fresco of the mythological siblings discovered on the dining room wall. In Greek myth, the siblings survive their stepmother’s attempt to sacrifice them to the gods by flying away on a ram with a golden fleece. While Phrixus escapes, Helle falls off the ram into the sea. The fresco captures the siblings reaching out to each other—Helle in the sea, Phrixus on the ram—in a fittingly futile attempt at rescue. The architectural features of the house may have accelerated the family’s demise. Like many Roman houses, the House of Helle and Phrixus featured an open-roofed atrium, intended to aid rainwater collection. But as lapilli fell from the sky during the first phase of the eruption, the rock debris, which reached up to nine feet in some locations, quickly flooded the house through the atrium. At first, the archaeological evidence shows, the four individuals tried to protect themselves by packing into a small room. They even pushed a wooden bed frame against the door, hoping that it would prevent the lapilli from entering.When that failed, the researchers think they pulled back the barricade and attempted to escape. Based on the location of the remains, they only got as far as the triclinium, or dining room. “This house, with its decorations and its objects, shows us people who tried to save themselves,” says Zuchtriegel in the statement, per a translation by La Brújula Verde’s Guillermo Carvajal. “They didn’t succeed, but their story is still here, beneath the ashes.” Over the centuries, the ash preserved the remains of the family, the wooden bed frame and other items, including a bronze amulet known as a bulla and a stash of amphorae filled with garum, a popular Roman fish sauce. Ash and lapilli flooded into through the open-roofed atrium, burying the house in up to nine feet of debris. Pompeii Archaeological Park Researchers don’t know that this particular family owned the House of Helle and Phrixus. The group may have taken refuge there after the owners fled, as Marcello Mogetta, an archaeologist and Roman art historian at the University of Missouri who wasn’t involved in the study, tells the Times. Still, the recovered objects offer a glimpse into Pompeian family life. For instance, the child was likely the one wearing the bronze bulla, as tradition dictated that boys wear such amulets for protection until adulthood. Additionally, traces of masonry materials suggest that the house was under renovation. As Zuchtriegel says in the statement, “Excavating Pompeii means confronting the beauty of art, but also the fragility of life.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.