Silver, a la Carte Restaurant Tooth Pick Holder

Product Description

This silver toothpick holder was made by Goldsmiths and Silversmiths in 1911 for use in the à la carte restaurant on board Olympic.  This exclusive and very well-made pattern of silver was used only on RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic.  The silver is of a heavy gauge and not made by a traditional hotel plate maker (such as Elkington).  Given that their new ships were the finest in the world, White Star really wanted to impress in the restaurant.  High-quality silver and Royal Dalton china paired with exquisite food and the best wines helped make this the finest dining room at sea.  It is hard to believe that the standards of service in the main dining room could be improved upon; however, that is just what White Star did in the restaurant.  It was all individual, table-side service. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for for just one photo of Titanic’s or Olympic’s restaurant with a table fully setup for dinner circa 1911.  I wonder if these were always out on the table or if were they brought out by stewards at the end of each meal.  Just imagine Captain Smith or Bruce Ismay reaching for a tooth pick that last night on board Titanic.

With most of Titanic’s silver on the sea floor and no other ship in the White Star fleet having used this pattern, we can safely say this piece was used on Olympic.  It likely made its way down to us today via the RMS Queen Mary or RMS Queen Elizabeth.  Cunard White Star, ever frugal and in the midst of the depression, transferred large amounts of silver and other useful items from Olympic and Majestic before they were scrapped to the QM.  To this day, you can see quite a number of silver White Star items on display on board the Mary.  In fact, they used to have some nice examples of restaurant silver in their display.  This piece is in excellent condition with some loss of silver on the inside, perhaps where the toothpicks rubbed the bottom.  Rare but cute too!