Spotlight on... Lundtofte cutlery

What have you had handed down from your family that you cherish? I remember, when I was little, my mum and dad getting out this amazing 1950s Danish wooden and stainless steel cutlery set when they had people over for dinner. 

Even as a child, I could appreciate the smooth tactile handles and their nicely tapered shape. The set now belongs to me (see it below). And what you don't want to with something this special, is put it in the dishwasher.

But I'll tell you a bit about the cutlery before we get to the dishwashing incident.

The set has "Lundtofte Stainless Denmark" stamped onto the back of each piece and those smooth handles are made from palisander – a Brazilian rosewood, which is dark with fine black lines running through it. The result is pretty special.

My dad thinks it came from the George Jensen shop on Bond Street, London. It was a wedding present when he got married to his first wife in 1959, just a year after it was designed by – I think – Tias Eckhoff. (I'm trying to identify it, by the way, from eBay photographs, where what looks like the same set, called Opus, is going for quite a bit of money – around £400. Goodness...). Anyway, so my dad's wife was working for Finmar Ltd, a wholesale importer of Scandinavian design which sold to shops including Liberty. Lucky for me, she introduced him to the joys of such sleek designs. Luckier still, when they split she got the gold coffee set (which does admittedly sound amazing), he got these beauties and, when I moved into my current house, generously gave them to me.

So when these 50-odd year old things accidentally got loaded into the dishwasher, you can imagine the panic. Knives, forks and spoons (two sizes of each!) emerged from the steaming machine dried out, pale and cracked.

Like my parents, I only get the cutlery out on special occasions. And this special occasion had called for five place settings: the set features six of everything, so you can probably see the ones that escaped a beating from the dishwasher (in case you can't, it's the two on the left). But I have since spent several hours lovingly treating them with Danish Oil, and they're looking much better than they were. And if I hadn't pointed it out, well – you'd never have noticed, would you? (Say no!)

Anyway, as I've just given them another coat of oil and had them all out, I thought I should photograph them. I would never buy myself a four-hundred quid set of cutlery, so it's a lovely thing to have handed down. Just don't tell my dad about the dishwashing incident...