Feb 10, 2023
The curious history of a tiny teeth-cleaning tool that became an elaborate fashion accessory and a fancy food-skewer
You’ll note that some of these implements are ornate—“picks” feels like a lackluster descriptor. Fancy toothpicks were a mark of sophistication in Shakespearean-era Britain, so much so that the Bard of Avon mentioned them in several of his plays, including Much Ado About Nothing, King John All’s Well That Ends Well, and Winter’s Tale. They remained a big deal in life and literature well into the 1800s, making cameos in the likes of Sense and Sensibility (here’s a whole podcast episode about toothpicks in the Regency era; thanks to Stannie Holt for the tip) and Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi.
