History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

8 HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTON.
also entered to a great extent into the manufacture of
trenchers, plates, platters, trays, bowls, cans and bottles.
Earthenware, red and brown, was much used in the latter
half of the eighteenth century. Pie plates, milk-pans,
mugs, bowls, pitchers, pudding dishes, and after the introduction
of tea, tea-pots, and "tea dishes," were kept in
stock at the stores or sold from house to house, by peddlers.
It was not till the last decade of the century that crockery,
blue and white, gradually displaced the coarser and heavier
articles of table furniture.
Knives and Forks. Tliesc iudispeusable articlcs did not comeinto
use in New England till about the opening
of the eighteenth century, and many years elapsed beforethey
found their way into the households of farmers in the
interior. In 1707 no forks were used to eat with, and
knives were seldom found at table, although the latter weremuch
employed for other purposes. They did not becomepopular
for twenty years or more. The first notice of sales,
of them in this town, is to be found upon the account-books
of the second Joseph Hawley. In 1735, in the inventory
of his stock of merchandise, were many knives, apparently
for table use, but no forks, though for a number of years
previous he had been in the practice of selling them. Hepurchased
in 1726, two dozen "women's horn springknives."
His sales of these articles were quite limited.
After 1760, they became much more common. Timothy
Dwight, who traded here for a long time, down to within
a dozen years of the Revolution, sold them in sets of six
each. Some persons, who evidently could afford no more,
bought one-third of a set, others one-half, and some moreambitious
or better able financially, purchased an entire
set, which cost them 6s., equal to one dollar. In the morewealthy
families, silver knives and forks are often inventoried,
but in many cases they were only silver handled.
Silver knives and forks were found in the inventory of Col.
John Stoddard, who died in 1748. His father. Rev. Solomon
Stoddard, who died about twenty years before, had
ten knives and nine forks, but they were of the ordinary
kind.