Unusual Artifacts: An Edwardian Silver Moustache Spoon, 1904

Moustache Spoon
John Round and Son, 1904
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Well, this almost makes me want to grow a moustache—almost.  Many Victorian gentleman followed the fashion of growing large and important-looking moustaches—a style which endured well into the reign of King George V.  Since these bushy, “lip friends,” as Ned Flanders would say, would often get in the way during the consumption of food, special cutlery was developed to keep the “cookie dusters” free from crumbs, and soup, and, sauce and…well, you get it.

Here’s a good example of moustache cutlery.  This special spoon was made with a guard on one side of the spoon’s bowl to protect the moustache when eating soup.  Many of these spoons had detachable guards so that they could be used by normal, moustache-less people.  This one, however is permanent.  Even more interesting is the fact that, often, these moustache spoons were  made for both right and left-handed users.


This attractive, but weird little spoon was manufactured by the firm of John Round & Son Ltd. Who described themselves as “The largest Spoon and Fork Makers in the World.”   The concern kept a factory in Sheffield, while the main showrooms were in London.