You may have seen a store with the $500 5-piece board game. Or a store with $150 cutlery. Relax, you don’t have to pay that price yet to begin with. Start small and gradually you will be able to build a large collection of Wallace La Reine cutlery entirely through eBay.
This article will point out some things to know about knives and forks in two different sizes. The examples and size used are specifically for the Wallace The Queen pattern.
Dinner size vs. Lunch or place size
The main knives and forks in most patterns come in two different sizes: the dinner size and the lunch size, which is also called the “place” size. Dinner forks or knives are usually about a half inch longer than lunch size. However, they are substantially heavier than that extra half inch would indicate. Few patterns come in continental size, but it is very rare and refers to the larger general size and longer length of cutlery that are popular in Europe. It is also marked by forks, knives, and soup spoons larger than dinner size.
Continental teaspoons tend to be the same as standard US sizes. (For example, in the popular Wallace Grand Baroque pattern, the knife sizes are – L: 9″, D: 9 3/4″, C: 10 5/8″.) Almost all individual cutlery and collection listings you see on ebay will be for lunch size, not dinner size cutlery.
You must know the dimensions of the pieces of your pattern and be sure that you are bidding for what you want; sometimes you may have to ask the seller for measurements. Some patterns (rarely) come in different weights and have an M (“Massive” – the heaviest), H (“Heavy”) and there are also lighter weights “Trade” and “Extra”. Of cause, the rarer it is, the more expensive it becomes.
In the next article, I’ll talk about French blade versus modern blade knives and the difference between the discontinued patterns and the ones still being made.