To think this is weird!?

[twighlighting]

Name changed for this...I don't know why.

I went round to a friend's for tea. A fairly new friend I might add. We met at a baby group. Anyway she invited us over for lunch (me and dd). As we are eating I saw the cutlery came from a wooden box on the sideboard. I was just making conversation and asked why is it in a box. She then said...it's a canteen...it's what the cutlery came in so I have just kept in there. It's easier than have it in the kitchen and it's silver so I don't want it scratched. Fair enough.(Maybe I'm common I have never heard of a canteen before) anyway
I looked at the name of the cutlery and it was called "Arthur price"

I know I'm being very nosy but I looked it up and the set costs over 2k!! Is it odd for someone to own such expensive cutlery when they live in a 3 bed terrace. I expected that out of mega rich ppl (excuse my ignorance) they have very average jobs etc

I'm don't want to come across as nosy etc but is that Normal? My cutlery cost about 20quid from tesco 🙈

[EmoIsntDead]

The only weird thing here is how invested you are in someone’s cutlery.

[Standrewsschool]

Arthur price

Lots of Arthur Price cutlery at House of Fraser for £100-200, including larger sets.

We had a canteen of cutlery given as a wedding present. It’s quite nice she got it out as she had guests coming, rather than just for Christmas.

[Twoforthree]

It is traditional to give canteens of cutlery for wedding presents. We have one.

Maybe she inherited it?

[Maggiesfarm]

It sounds like a wedding present or something she inherited.
Rather snobbish to think a canteen of silver cutlery is too 'grand' for someone living in a three bed terraced house. People have all sorts of bits and pieces.

For £2,000 it would be silver plated, not solid silver.

[ZenNudist]

Its not unusual to have a canteen of cutlery. I hope to inherit my grandma's silver cutlery one day, which is used by my parents. You would have to polish silver as it goes black.

I put a canteen of expensive cutlery (about £500) on my wedding list but anyone who would have given us an expensive gift just gave us cash. So I didn't get it.

[ZenNudist]

Also my grandparents weren't grand but they did have silver cutlery. I'm from working class immigrant background but they worked hard and bought nice things when they were alive.

[rattlemehearties]

AIBU. To think this is weird!?

Yes OP. You are the weird one. Stop judging people's possessions and googling their cutlery.

[Lifeisaminestrone]

She can keep it. I hate eating from silver cutlery - can taste the silver.

Maybe I am a true example of not being born with a silver spoon in my mouth!

[MyShoelaceIsUndone]

Growing up we had ‘special Xmas cutlery and glasses’ all got packed away after each Xmas dinner

[TheBaddie]

I probably would have noticed it too if it looked out of place, I dont know anyone under a certain age that would own something like this....I also would have googled it, maybe I'm a nosey cow

I think the only weird one here is @CheesyWeez sneaking cutlery into someone else's dishwasher

[borntobequiet]

I’ve got a canteen of 50s stainless steel Arthur Price cutlery that I bought secondhand in 1985 for £20, IIRC. I keep the most of the items in a drawer, though, rather than in the very nice box, because it’s handier, and it all goes in the dishwasher. (I also regularly use use the fish knives and forks, which annoy my children and intrigue my grandchildren.)

[Lairymary]

She probably has normal cheap cutlery but decided to crack out the good stuff as she was entertaining. I can't imagine someone going to the bother of keeping it in a box that's not in the kitchen for every day use. What a faff. Dinner parties, Christmas and nosey lunch guests.

[brokenbiscuitsx]

I’d have Googled like OP because I’m curious and by Googling the brand you’d automatically get the price …

I used to keep so many things for best but since COVID I’ve realised it’s not worth it and to use special things more.

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

Some MNers who are as old as me, may remember when Kellogg’s had an offer of silver plated cutlery with your family initial on. Masses of people collected it, item by item.

We have a silver plated canteen, bought many years ago after an insurance payout for a burgled item we didn’t want to replace anyway.

Ours is a 12 place setting one, but at the time there was a 6 setting solid silver one in the sale at the same shop - for about the same price. The assistant said it was the best bargain in the whole dept. store and I’ve often thought we were daft not to buy that instead, even if we’d have been short of 2 or 3 settings when we do use it - for guests/special occasions. Which is when I also get the white linen napkins out.🙂

[Angel2702]

I’ve always wanted a canteen of really nice cutlery but I know I wouldn’t use it enough to justify it.

[PrettyLittleFlies]

@Nomorepies

Wedding present? Maybe she saved up and likes to use nice things every day rather than save for best? Inherited? All normal, just outside your experience OP.

Doesn't make her weird, maybe just you for sneering at her.

She isn't sneering. Why are so many posters determined to be rude?

[Hallomother]

I think it’s weird you looked it up 😂
It could have been a gift, could have been handed down by a relative, who knows. Maybe they got it in the sale (I used to work on an Arthur price concession and they used to do big mega sales with a high percentage off).

[PrettyLittleFlies]

@fourminutestosavetheworld

"Absolutely. Can't understand pp's saying its weird. Curiosity and intelligence are linked."

But she didn't just google 'what is a canteen of cutlery?' did she. She made a mental note of the brand and researched how much her friend spent on it. She was surprised by the price and wonders how her friend could have afforded it. Even after googling and finding out it was a normal thing to have, she came on mn to ask whether we agreed that it was weird that her friend could have afforded it. In short, less curiosity and intelligence to learn something new, more baffling nosiness.

And yet here you are involving yourself 😂

[ImitationofBeing]

I am wistfully imagining this woman in her terrace, lovingly polishing her canteen.

The history of which is unknown (but much speculated by a potential new friend and MN). She won't give away the reason how/why she owns and loves this canteen, it's her secret (and the truth is boring).

On the basis of this 1 factor I know about this woman, I like her lots.

[Clappingforjoy]

Could be inherited from grandparents.

[Aprilx]

The only weird thing is that you look up the price of somebody’s cutlery and think people in terraced houses shouldn’t have anything of value.

I live in a terraced house, I think we have a few valuable bits and pieces here and there, I didn’t realise we had ideas above our station.

[NellePorter]

I don't think you're being weird for looking it up OP, it's how you learn!
We use our canteen of cutlery every day (bought as a wedding gift 20 years ago, we are in our 40s).
My sister has Arthur Price and it certainly didn't cost £2k though!

[FunnyWonder]

Showing my age here, but you hardly ever hear the phrase 'canteen of cutlery' these days - not since The Sale of the Century stopped being broadcast. Aaah, those were the days, when a canteen of cutlery was deemed a desirable prize on a quiz show

[sst1234]

@MotionActivatedDog

Yes I think it’s weird that you googled the price of someone’s cutlery.

No weirder than people actively coming on this board to read people’s personal problems.

[Yondergoat]

I have my grandparents' canteen of silver and bone handled cutlery that they were given as a wedding present back in the 1930s.