Stainless steel cutlery

1966. Two young people up town in Knightsbridge. She is 21, he is 22. She wears Mary Quant, the classic A-line mini-dress – she made it herself – with a chunky wooden bead necklace. He wears a black leather jacket, a floral shirt with narrow tie – she made these too – and stone-washed Levi 501s. She wears her black hair long with a fringe. He wears his as close to a Beatles mop as he can manage.

Elizabeth and Peter have taken the tube up to town shopping for wedding gifts. Their research has led them to Rosenthal Studio on the Brompton Road near Harrods, the place to go for modern stainless steel – they are very design conscious. After Knightsbridge their search will take them to the design Mecca of Heals and the newly established Habitat. Feeling absurdly grown up to be choosing a cutlery set in such stylish surroundings, they pay careful attention as the shop assistant shows the ranges on offer, confident that, with enough discussion, they will settle on a set both are happy with. That is how they are together. The chosen design is described in the catalogue as:

Beautiful modernist flatware from Austria, model 2050, designed by Helmut Alder, executed by Amboss Austria. High-quality flatware, made of brushed and polished stainless steel. 

This wedding present will be paid for by Peter’s Auntie Hazel, his father’s sister, who lives in Guildford and has spent her professional life as a science teacher in a girls’ grammar school. Hazel lives with her friend and companion Elizabeth Underwood – known to the family as ‘Li’ because the children when young couldn’t pronounce her full name – who teaches history at the same girls’ school as Hazel. When Li finds out that Peter and Elizabeth have chosen the Amboss design, she buys as her present the matching carving set.

Although living some distance from Peter’s family, Hazel and Li are held in great affection, not least because they hosted the family – before Peter was born – for several months during the worst of the World War II blitz in their rather too small house. This was a significant commitment for two middle aged women with no experience of small children. Hazel also coached Peter for his A levels Physics, although she found the syllabus significantly advanced from her teaching days.

This cutlery has been in daily use for nearly sixty years. One or two pieces that mysteriously disappeared have been replaced. The ‘brushed and polished stainless steel’ shows some minor scratching but only when compared with the immaculate polish of a factory-new piece. Each piece feels solid and well balanced in the hand without being clunky. As a modern classic, the set is currently priced on-line at between £2,000 and £3,000.

Elizabeth and Peter remain pleased with the choice of those distant, but yet so familiar, young people.