Dad’s vintage collection of airline spoons.
 

This is dated last september:

A Mini-History of Modern International Aviation as Told in Stolen Spoons ? Skift

Very interesting. I wish I'd saved my Syrian Arab teaspoon when I flew from Aleppo to Damascus on a B727 back in 2006. Oh the fare was only £12!

Some of them are fabulous so take care of them. An ex-chum of mine collects sick bags. Doubt they'd sell for as much as the spoons though!

How cool. Mum and Dad still have a Thai teaspoon that they nicked in 1999!

I have a 'collection' stashed away somewhere in a packing crate, knife/fork/spoon from various airlines that seemed to find their way into my possession and became talking pieces at dinner parties where each guest had a different airline. At least it took the attention away from my culinary offerings :) If I remember correctly the cutlery was always 2/3's size or thereabouts ?



SHJ

I have a few that I liberated, including a couple of airlines that are no longer with us, Air UK and Royal Airlines (of Canada)

I also have a British Airways tea pot that my dad managed to get hold of somehow!

Just pointed my wife to this thread. She's been on at me for years to chuck our kitchen drawer full of assorted airline teaspoons, plus the odd knives! We (correction, I) use ours on a daily basis though.

Last night, just before I saw this article, I had eaten my evening meal with my Swiss Air biz cutlery from 1997. :ok:

I did a contract in GVA and was shuttling for a few months and the items were/are so beautifully shaped and made despite their smaller size, that I just had to collect a small set. It was particularly appropriate to use them for this meal, as I was in a hurry and it was a microwaved salmon and veg (from one of the best suppliers of these things, I'll have you know :=) and I ate straight from the plastic dish. And I was watching TV - so it was just like being on board! I have a couple of LH teaspoons but no other cutlery - just the Swiss.

Of course, I've never taken anything else from an aircraft such as those lovely VS blankets. Although, if I did, I might consider collecting one from each class. I might even have the PE one (with the scooped neck) on the sofa for us to snuggle under. But, naturally, I'm a very respectful Pax.

I've got a selection of Concorde knives that I may need to dispose of, and also 12 original corgi die cast model airliners, all limited edition, first edition, complete and with the original corgi inside. Also original Timetables and memorabilia from the 80's and 90's.
I'm planning for a move to the Philippines so need to make sure all old airline stuff gets a good home.

There I was thinking that the plastic implements nowadays are due to security concerns.

:)

But seriously, when flying was for the rich, it was all budgeted for, together with their nicely inscribed minature glasses. The same went for hotels and their ashtrays (my father's weakness on his business travels around the world). And how many of you haven't accidentally gone home with a pint/wine glass from the pub?

I have a few of defunct airlines. Varig, Flitestar, CAA, Air Rhodesia, I'll put some photos of them up when I get a chance.

Have some Air Europe stuff if interested?

Never understood why people do that. Not making a moral judgement here by the way! Pint glasses are about 10p for a million, why would you bother nicking one?

I've got a few sets of Virgin cutlery from when a friend was doing regular flights with them.

In the 90s I went on a charter flight from Stansted to Sweden; can't quite remember the actual airline now, but it was a BAC 1-11. Somehow we'd chartered the whole flight, so the a/c spent the whole day in Sweden and the cabin-crew and flight-crew went shopping for the day. I remember that the tea and coffee pots were both marked BIA (British Island Airways) and somebody managed to barter with the cabin-crew to buy the tea-pot at the end of the flight ... somebody else was in serious negotiations to buy the whole catering trolley - good luck in wheeling that back through Customs at Stansted!

Back in the late 1970's out of Los Angeles the duty manager came on to advise me of a very important, very rich, very famous passenger also a peer of The Realm travelling to London with us.

As a final note to me he said keep and eye on the cutlery as he had watched him pinching the teaspoons from the First Class lounge!

Amusingly enough, Queen Mary (George V's wife) was a notorious kleptomaniac. When they visited a country pile the first thing the owners did was to hide all the good stuff.

Around 1968 a flatmate of mine flew Air-India from LHR to Prague and back. He came back with a little booklet handed out to passengers, of very funny cartoons on what to expect in the booking and travelling process. One example was something like ‘during the flight the Captain may pass through the cabin to chat to passengers. When you see him coming, move your wife and your wallet to the other side’. Another was ‘as you leave the aircraft, the hostess will embrace you. This is not a traditional Indian salutation, she is removing the airline cutlery from your pockets’.

The airline’s CEO at the time (it might have been Mr Tata) was well known for his sense of humour. I have a feeling it might even have been he who made the drawings for the book.

Anybody else recall seeing one?

The SSK, yes indeed I do (B707, ORY-LHR, 6/67). So wish I had kept it. :{

A rather unusual but much apreciated wedding present was a set of various airline spoons copied in silver by a friend who graduated from the royal college of art. They look great but need more polishing than the originals!

I have been collecting airline spoons for years now and would be happy to swap or buy from any of you
My collection and my dups are visible at http://airlinespoon.free.fr

Read you soon :O

Thread drift - Air India humour
 

I picked up a copy at a collectors show a while back. It seems to date from the 707 era. The author is credited asy their Traffic Manager, one S.K (Bobby) Kooka who was also responsible for the "Little Maharajah" logo. The drawings are credited to the J Walter Thompson agency in Bombay. Here are two more extracts


BAKSHEESH
Please don't tip our staff - from our Directors downwards.The management is fussy on this ruling and if anyone is caught it means the sack. As a result our staff turnover is terrific, particularly among our executives whose life span is only three months.

FINDERS KEEPERS
Before you leave the plane at destination, please look around you to see if you've forgotten anything. Better still, look around in case the other passengers have left something behind which you can transfer deftly into your trouser pocket. Our Directors all wear watches which our passengers originally purchased.

Thanks one11 - yes, I remember those too.

What is the name of the booklet? I thought it might be something like 'Irreverently Yours' but I'm not sure. I have Googled every imaginable keyword but it doesn't throw anything up.

Would definitely look out for it on Ebay.

On second thoghts, PM me, wouldn't want other readers of this thread outbidding me!

Am I reading Private Eye?

I love airline teaspoons
 

Hi all- I'm a complete fan of airline teaspoons. So if your chucking any out and want them to go to a good home where they will be loved, polished and allowed to hang out with other teaspoons pls contact me!!!

So what your saying is you are a bit of a polisher:8

Or just trying to stir up a bit of interest ...

All I can say is....what a bunch of thieving b*****ds! :rolleyes:

Yes we are !!!!!!!

I have several Airline small spoons and a couple of Knives and Forks, wouldn't nick any of the latter these days due to security etc. Holiday souvenirs you see.

Back in my trainspotting days in the late 60's I remember going to Retford to see the last of steam there. In the station buffet cutlery trays were many examples of the old pre-grouping railways, North Eastern, Great Eastern, Great Northern and a silver Great Central spoon, all beautifully engraved. It took a few plates of apple pie & custard to "obtain" those.

I definitely got this habit off my dad, for our old house cutlery was stamped "Telegraph Canteen" from his days working on the Sheffield Telegraph newspaper - as you would expect from Sheffield it was first rate stuff. My brother still has - and still uses them.

Lid

I've got an Air Nigeria cup and saucer but I can't use it, I haven't got the spoon.