When my mother gently placed the teaspoon in my palm, her hand covered mine. "I don't know where it came from," she told me, "but I want you to have this. All I know is that it's been in our family ...

Being born with a silver spoon in the mouth really was a mark of rank. Kya deLongchamps sups at the long history of precious flatware. Someone washed a plastic ‘spork’ and returned it to the cutlery ...