ELIZABETH COLLECTS

All my life I’ve been a collector. First cereal toys, then rocks, then more rocks, then shells, more shells, bits and bobs of other things, then the little beauties you see below.

Trust me—the photography sucks, but the items are beautiful.


What, you ask, are THOSE? Glass barbells for see-through midgets?

Nope.

They’re Victorian knife rests.

Really.

You see, it used to be unspeakably rude to put your knife on your plate. (gasps all around) But it you can’t prop a dirty knife on your plate, what happens to that fancy linen/lace tablecloth?

Yeah. Grease Central.

Can’t have that. (more gasps and a woman feeling faint in the parlor)

So someone invented a pretty crystal bauble shaped to hold a soiled knife away from milady’s fancy tablecloth. Little baubles=little knives. Big baubles=carving knives.

Man is a very clever monkey.

When my parents died, I found myself the happy owner of a single knife rest which had belonged to my great-grandmother. I’d always loved it, loved the way it bent light into colors, loved the way it felt, loved the way it looked.

Then I was in an antique store and saw another knife rest.

And another.


And a whole lot more through the years.


Now I own several hundred knife rests, no two exactly alike, and am always delighted to find more to add to my collection.


What about you? Do you have something you collect, or used to collect? Do you organize and name every piece or do you just enjoy looking at the whole?

Other collectors want to know (so we don't feel odd).