Here is a great collectible for the spatially challenged. Knife rests are small table accessories, usually sold in sets of six or eight, but usually come onto the secondary market individually and without the original packaging. So, those with room can collect sets, in the original box, and the rest of us can go the one-of-each route where each rest is different, and the whole collection can be held in a small-ish suitcase.
Knife rests are and were used where the table setting of flatware has only one knife for the entire meal. As food course follows course, the knife is placed on the rest when the previous plate is leaving the table and the next course is coming out of the kitchen. Say, between the roast beef and Yorkshire pudding main dish and the fruit and cheese dessert plate. Whether the meal is served on a bare table top, place mats or linen tablecloth, no householder wants the remains of any course on the table when the meal is complete. Hence, the knife rest.
Knife rests are made from any relatively impermeable material, from metals and wood to plastic, glass and china. In fact, this is one area where the plastic version is harder to find than those made of other materials. Older versions may be combined with a napkin ring or an open salt dip, but most are single function items. Many are long enough, or have two flat places, so the fork can be saved for the next course as well as the knife. Carving sets also frequently have knife rests, which can also have a place to rest the carving fork when not in use.
Chopstick rests are a version of the knife rest from a different eating utensil tradition, showing that the concern for reusing the eating utensils while not making a mess on the table is relatively universal. Chopstick rests have the same advantages as knife rests as a collectible, but the sets will come in odd numbers, usually five, as odd numbers are luckier in the East.
Some American makers have knife rests among their products, including fine silver and cut crystal ones. Older times produced rests from pot metal, pewter, china and porcelain, glass and easily worked materials. They are generally from two to four inches long, and rest securely on the table. No point in having a knife rest that wobbles and dumps the knife onto the tablecloth after all the effort of making and having a rest to prevent that very thing.
Many antique and collectibles books may have a section on knife rests, or list knife rests among other glass and porcelain table items, but for pictures of many knife rests, see Knife Rests by Virginia L. Neas, Glassy Mountain Press, Pickens, South Carolina, 1987.
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