The Napkin Ring Site

History

The napkin ring is a bourgeois invention. The first examples were probably plain or embroidered tapes created by the housewife to personalise the family’s napkins between weekly wash-days.

Napkin rings in silver were the result of the growing wealth of the middleclass. The observations below indicate that silver napkin rings started in

France

about 1800. By 1840 they had spread to most western countries.

A research report about silver in Sweden 1830-1915 (In Swedish by Björn Hedstrand) quotes statistics from the Swedish hallmarking office illustrating the start of silver napkin rings in Sweden ca. 1840 and the the very large number produced and imported from about 1890.

In the 19’ th century the dinner table was the centre of social events and that was where the family exhibited its wealth. The quality and quantity of a family’s table silver was a direct measure of its success. In that period the small personal napkin ring in silver became a favourite present at christenings, weddings and silver weddings. Inscriptions on early examples show, that napkin rings were also used as presents between friends at special occasions such as new year.

The story goes that in the mid 19’th century, when explained the function of the napkin ring, an English nobleman exclaimed “My dear, does anyone use the napkin more than once!” Soon however the napkin ring was used at all levels of society. Examples with crowned monograms appear regularly on the market and a napkin ring was one of the gifts for the present Danish Queen Margrethe II at her christening in the early 1940’es. The designer was her uncle the Swedish prince Sigvard Bernadotte and the producer was the famous Danish silversmith Georg Jensen.

Today disposable paper napkins dominate the dinner table, but visitors to department stores and design shops will find that the napkin ring is again in demand, this time primarily as a round-the-table decoration at parties.

Early napkin rings

When did napkin rings start ? That is the most frequent question in discussions between collectors.
The following account of early napkin rings is based of one collector's observations from 30 years of visits to dealers and collectors in Europe and nearly ten years of internet search:

In the UK regular visits and discussions with experienced dealers and collectors have revealed only two Georgian napkin rings. Both were plain and marked in the 1830'es. Not even second hand accounts of other examples of that age have appeared.

In France one visit to the antique dealers of Paris in the early 1980'es brought five examples marked with the old head ("le viellard") used 1819-38. Later visits to Paris and ebay and correspondance with collectors have brought another about 15 examples with the old marks., all of the same shape and large dimensions as the typical later French napkin ring: Circular with a diameter of about 5,0 cm and a width of about 4 cm. The body is either straight or slightly hourglass shaped.

The photos below show more provincial early napkin rings from some of the smaller European countries.

Please expand by mailing your own early examples

Denmark 1843

This example is marked A. Michelsen, Copenhagen 1843. It is one of a handfull of Danish and Norwegian napkin rings from the early 1840'es - all of oval shape.