We've said it before and we'll say it again: presentation is everything. Yes, even when it comes to something as simple as toast! With this gleaming vintage silverplate and frosted glass caddy at your breakfast service, you'll be saying goodbye to soggy stacks of toast forever and hello to an antique-inspired tabletop worthy of the most important meal of the day!

Found at a silver market in northern England, this cheerful Vintage Silverplate Toast Rack with Jam Dish & Spoon is a true treasure! With an arched handle for ease of transport to the table and a purposeful spoon that appears to levitate tantalizingly between toast and jam, the lovely caddy stands confidently on small ball feet. Gleaming wings extend on each side to hold perfectly toasted (English) muffins, crumpets or slices of your favorite toasted bread, while the shallow frosted glass dish below makes the perfect vessel for jam, fruit preserves or clotted cream.

Crafted by the long-shuttered Birmingham silversmith, Arnold E. Williams, this serving piece was specifically designed to hold slices of toast, but we also love turning a toast rack into our very own filing system. Whether it holds mail and paperclips on your desk, correspondence cards, envelopes and postage stamps, treasured photographs and ephemera, or becomes a beloved staple on the morning table, it is certain to bring beauty and grace wherever it is found. 

One-of-a-kind and subject to prior sale. In very good vintage condition. 6" H x 7.75" x 4.5". Dish measures 3.5" in diameter. Spoon measures 5.5"L.

Learn More About Toast Racks

Despite the fact that eating toast dates back to the Roman era ("Tostum” being Latin for "scorched”), the development of the toast rack did not happen until the 18th Century. Up until this point any innovation revolved around the making of the toast rather than the presentation; this development took us from the humble hot stone, on to the wire frame used to toast bread above fire, then to the toasting fork (which was hugely popular during the Victorian era) and finally to the toaster, introduced in 1893 by the British Crompton company.

It is claimed that the first toast rack was crafted in the 1770’s with them first appearing on the breakfast table around the 1780’s as part of the general refinement of dining customs among the middle classes. 

This concept of the perfect dry toast (and the idea that room temperature, dry toast was preferable to warm but soggy toast) was echoed a lot in 18th and 19th century cook books such as Mrs. Beeton’s Dictionary of Every-Day Cookery (1865) in which she writes "to make dry toast properly, a great deal of attention is required; much more, indeed, than people generally suppose.” and then goes on to assert that the answer, of course, is the implementation of the toast rack.