Victorian Napkin Rings

At the height of the Victorian era, many dining tables in America were elegant but they were not complete without the nice touch that napkin rings offered.

Napkin rings held linen napkins placed on dining tables while frequently providing a source or marker for the person who sat there. Many napkin rings were engraved for Mother, Father, or many other members of the family. Many were also monogrammed while others were distinguished by individual figural designs.

The unique Victorian taste might range from wild animals to women in formal dress or any assortment that blended into the fashionable furnishings that filled the formal dining table of the Victorian era.

Sterling silver and silver plate napkin rings were available to anyone who could afford them during the 1860s.

The ability to distinguish an individual’s own ring was an important factor because the napkins themselves were usually washed only once a day or even less often.

Napkin rings during the Victorian period were generally produced in material other than silver, including bamboo, brass, bronze, pewter, porcelain, wood and various types of glass while other rings had been designed to match the glass and metal of the other tableware pieces. Silver and silver plate still dominated the manufacturing material.

During the 1870s, the Tiffany and Company entertained the desires of some wealthy customers satisfying one customer in particular with a silver dining service of 1,250 pieces, including silver napkin rings.

Much of the time silver napkin rings were engraved with initials or a full family name. Many included floral and scroll designs, wildlife scenes or fancy borders while some were oval, square, or many-sided hexagons, but most were round to hold the hand-rolled napkins.

Figural napkin rings were much more elaborate and typically much more expensive and Victorian shoppers had an enormous selection of figurals that included clowns and cupids or children playing and chickens hatching.

The most distinguished were figural designs were based on the work of artist Kate Greenaway who was most famous for her illustrations in children's books that included rabbits, goats, cows, cats and dogs which could be duplicated and found napkin rings. Many times birds of every type could be found or an entire zoo of domestic and wild animals placed with artistic expertise on napkin rings.

Many manufacturing companies of napkin rings would mark their products with a name or various codes but not all napkin rings were marked over the years markings were lost to usage and aging.
Near the end of the 19th century, nearly every household had napkin rings that could be plain or elaborate comparable to the settings the accompanied.

Retail catalog from Montgomery Ward, Marshall Field and Company featured many styles of napkin rings while Tiffany and Company offered its wealthier clientele upwards of 48 different styles of napkin rings made of sterling silver, gold or precious metal combinations.
Moving into the 20th century, hardwood and celluloid napkin rings began to appear on in the marketplace and replaced more elaborate and expensive styles. Napkin rings were produced in colorful styles of Bakelite in later years.

Collector’s today find napkin rings of the Victorian era as prized collectible and very desirable combined with combinations of butter plates to condiment holders from the same Victorian era. Napkin rings with figurals are considered  more desirable by collector’s.