Butter pick ("Grass")

Due to its price and perishability, butter remained a luxury item used sparingly throughout the 19th century. As a result, manufacturers developed butter picks with which a host or servant would apportion pats of butter to guests. Shaped like a single blade of grass terminated by intertwined roots that function as handle and tines respectively, this pick reflects the influence of metalwork of Meiji period Japan, characterized by a fusion of naturalism and functionalism, as well as the innovation of designer George Shiebler.

**Drawn from**

* Charles L. Venable, _Silver in America, 1840-1940: A Century of Splendor_ (Dallas, Texas: Dallas Museum of Art; New York, New York; Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1994), 128, 140-141, 339.
* Hannah Sigur, _The Influence of Japanese Art on Design_ (Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, 2008), 160.