Etiquette, the Holidays & the Generosity of Strangers

From an old New Yorker Magazine

The winter holidays always seem to bring out the wonderful generosity of complete strangers online.   

(And no... I am not talking about all of you who keep asking me to be your "friend" on Yahoo and Hotmail, seeing as there are warning notices from the servers that come with your requests)

This December has been no different than those past.  In fact, I have a new friend via Ebay, all thanks to one half of a "pickle set". (More on pickle sets at a later date, in another post...) 

    After listing this presumed Albert Coles  fork (it looks like his work, but he did not mark it 150 years ago) I got a friendly email from an Ebayer who confirmed my assertion that it was indeed circa 1850s-1860s, by Albert Coles and said she would be happy to send a photo of her knife and matching fork pickle set  
(Shown below).  

Over the last several days, we have been swapping stories about our silver collections and she has generously sent me photos of  her pieces.  These are true works of art in silver!  She has also graciously allowed me to post them on this blog, in order to share them with other silver lovers and collectors.  So here I give you an anonymous Ebayer's  photos from her private collection of buckwheat cake lifters, and other silver collectibles.  Silver lovers, I hope you enjoy this holiday gift.  The  variety of buckwheat cake lifters in this collection is really something, especially compared to a cake lifter featured below in an old cookbook.    
(For those of you unfamiliar with buckwheat cakes, I have added some images from a cookbook first published in 1876.  Click on any of these for a larger view or a better read...)

Read some recipes for all sorts of 'Griddle' type cakes from 1876...