Learn English – When did the word cutlery first include spoons and forks

etymology

In the comments in Where is the word "cutlery" in common usage this question came up with no obvious resolution. In British English today the word cutlery just refers to implements used for eating, such as knives, forks and spoons. However this is not the definition given in the OED (where the current entry still dates from 1893), nor is it the usage one can see using Google Books from the 19th century. What is the first usage of cutlery in its modern meaning?

If one needs more proof of the modern meaning, the Wikipedia article says "The major items of cutlery in the Western world are the knife, fork and spoon." and a web search will show no end of shops in the UK selling knives, forks and spoons as cutlery.

To try to hone in on a date, in 1939 cutlery apparently included spoons and forks even in the US. See this Google Books results. There is also a linguistic distinction between kitchen cutlery and table cutlery.

Best Answer

The term cutlery embraced forks (but not, apparently, spoons) at least as early as 1766, when D. Fenning, J. Collyer and others report of the island of Borneo that

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 —A New System of Geography: or A General Description of the World

This understanding received judicial imprimatur in the case of Kirk against Nowill and Butler, King's Bench, Hilary Term 1786, where it is reported (and not gainsaid) that searchers appointed by the Company of Cutlers of the Lordship of Hallamshire to discover ‘deceitful and unworkmanly cutlery wares’, did

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And Thomas Martin, Civil Engineer, assisted by eminent professional mechanics and manufacturers, states in The Circle of the Mechanical Arts, 1813, that

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