A spoon tray is a

tray A tray is a shallow platform designed for the carrying of items. It can be fashioned from numerous materials, including silver, brass, sheet iron, paperboard, wood, melamine, and molded pulp. Trays range in cost from inexpensive molded pulp tray ...

used to rest the

spoon A spoon (, ) is a utensil consisting of a shallow bowl (also known as a head), oval or round, at the end of a handle. A type of cutlery (sometimes called flatware in the United States), especially as part of a table setting, place setting, it ...

s that are either hot, wet, or prepared for serving. The spoon tray, usually elongated, can be found in the

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

dinner Dinner usually refers to what is in many Western cultures the biggest and most formal meal of the day. Historically, the largest meal used to be eaten around noon, midday, and called dinner. Especially among the elite, it gradually migrated to ...

, or

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...

services. The spoon tray is sometimes called a spoon boat or a spooner (although some sources reserve the latter term for vessels used for the vertical arrangement of spoons). The tray looks similar to the pickle or olive dish, but its edges are frequently flattened. Some spoon trays have slotted areas at their rims, to rest spoons more securely. The spoon boat was a typical part of a tea equipage in the first half of the 18th century, possibly due to the habit of drinking tea from the saucer that precluded using it to rest the spoon. Britain was importing novel porcelain "boats for spoons" from China in 1722 that were replacing local silver versions available since 1690s. The tea spoon boats went out of fashion by 1790s.

References

{{kitchenware-stub Tableware Teaware