The history of wooden spoons

Wooden spoons have been made in virtually every nation and have been around for a long long time.  

The earliest use of spoons dates back to prehistoric times. People used shells or chips of wood for spoons. The earliest wooden spoon we have dates back to a wooden spoon found in the Royal Tomb of the Pharoah Tutankhamun, and is estimated to be over 3300 years old.

But we know there were spoons, including wooden spoons used in different parts of the world before this. The ancient words for spoon suggest the different materials they were made of. The Greek and Latin words for spoon derive from cochlea, meaning a spiral shell. The anglo saxon word Spon means a chip of wood.

But around the beginning of the bronze age, some 3600 years ago, spoons began to be made out of bronze and wealthier people replaced their wooden spoons with bronze ones. Some were also made of copper.

The bronze age was followed by the Iron age and the range of spoons and other kitchen implements grew rapidly. The Romans especially, used a wide range of kitchen utensils including spoons. In the process they changed and modified many utensils

In China during the Shang Dynasty,1600 to 1046 BC spoons began to be made out of bone and later in China and across Asia spoons and other utensils became made from ceramics.

The Chinese soup spoon, dating back to the Shang dynasty (1500 BCE), is characterized by its deep, flat bowls, short handles, and durable ceramic construction, ideal for holding soup and brothy liquids common in Chinese cuisine. Unlike Western soup spoons, the Chinese soup spoon design allows for easy stacking and greater soup capacity. For centuries the soup spoon was a more popular cutlery choice than chopsticks in Asia, up until the 3rd century when noodles and dumplings made chopsticks more practical for most foods, relegating soup spoons to soup consumption only. 

In Europe during the 14^th Century, it became more common for spoons to be made from pewter and they became more affordable for the general population, not just the wealthy which had been the main users of metal spoons up until then.

During the 17th century, funeral spoons became fashionable; spoons that were made for presentation to members of the deceased’s family as a memento-mori object, designed to remind the living that life is all too brief.

Iranian paintings from the early to mid-nineteenth century feature finely carved spoons placed delicately along the edges of large porcelain bowls. The spoon were carved from lime or pear wood specifically for the use of dignitary or elite members of society during banquets or special ceremonies. The porcelain bowls contained sherbet and these spoons were used communally amongst guests, often with several guests drinking from the same spoon.

In 19th Century Europe as the industrial revolution took hold and factories produced huge quantities of products, the range of spoons grew rapidly. Spoons that had a particular use, for instance a mustard spoon, were able to be produced in mass and at reasonable cost. This led to the widespread adoption of different styles of spoons, at least in comparison to what had been possible before.