US2694485A

US2694485A - Chest for silverware

Info

Publication number: US2694485A
Application number: US334467A
Authority: US
Inventors: Morris I Naken
Original assignee: MI Naken Co
Current assignee: MI Naken Co
Priority date: 1953-02-02
Filing date: 1953-02-02
Publication date: 1954-11-16
Anticipated expiration: 1971-11-16

Description

1954 M. 1. NAKEN 2,694,485

CHEST FOR- SILVERWARE Filed Feb. 2, 1953 United States Patent Office 2,694,485 Patented Nov. 16 1954 CHEST non SILVERWARE Mom's I. Naken, Chicago, 111., assignor to M. I. Naken (30., Chicago, Iii, a corporation of Illinois Application February 2, 1953, Serial No. 334,467

2 Claims. (Cl. 206-16) This invention relates to chests for table silverware.

Chests of the type with which the present invention is concerned generally comprise a box having one or more racks therein for receiving groups of table silverware, such as groups of forks, groups of teaspoons, groups of soup spoons, and the like. These racks generally have slots into which the shank of the held article of silverware is placed, so that the article of silverware extends on each side of the rack. The box in which the rack is mounted is therefore constructed to allow sufficient space for the parts of the silverware that are to extend on opposite sides of the rack. The shanks or handles of the articles of silverware all extend on one side of the rack. These are comparatively long and therefore considerable space must be provided for the shanks. If it is desired to place hollow handled butter spreaders in the silverware chest it is found that there is considerable waste space because the handle of the butter spreader is relatively short and, further, butter spreaders frequently cannot be conveniently stacked one on top of the other as, for instance, in the case of spoons. This means that the racks for holding butter spreaders and for receiving various types of spoons or forks are quite wasteful of space within the chest, and therefore requires a rack which must be made much larger than would be necessary if such were utilized for greater efliciency.

It is one of the objects of the present invention to provide a silverware chest that has the usual racks for holding standard silverware with an additional rack particularly made and located for holding hollow handled butter spreaders. It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a chest with means whereby the rack that is adapted to hold hollow handled butter spreaders is also adapted to hold other articles of silverware when it does not hold the butter spreaders. In accordance with the principles of the present invention the rack for holding hollow handled butter spreaders is made flat at its end so that it can hold a carving set, and the rack is provided with a ledge at its rear for holding a carving set against movement toward the silverware that may be held in adjacent racks of the chest.

In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention the butter spreader holding rack is located at the forward end of the rack to hold two rows of butter spreaders, one row on each side of the transverse center line of the rack, each of the butter spreaders extending lengthwise of the chest and the butter spreaders of each rack being spaced from one another in a direction transversely of the chest.

The attainment of the above and further objects of the present invention will be apparent from the following specification taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing forming a part thereof.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a chest constructed in accordance with the present invention;

Figure 2 is an enlarged plan view of the butter spreader rack of the present invention;

Figure 3 is a sectional view taken along the line 3-3 of Figure 2 and looking in the direction of the arrows; and

Figure 4 is a section taken along the line 44 of Figure 2 and looking in the direction of the arrows.

The chest, indicated at 1, comprises a box-like body 2 and a box-like lid 3 hinged thereto and each containing racks for silverware. The box 2 includes longitudinal front and rear sides 4 and 4', transverse sides 5, and a bottom 6. The cover is held in its open position by a link 7 that is pivoted at its upper end to the cover and at its lower end is slidable in a slot formed in a slide 7' that is secured to the inside of a transverse side 5. The front, rear and transverse sides are provided with liners 8 of wood, cardboard, or other material, the exposed surfaces of which are covered with flannel, said liners extending above the tops of the longitudinal and transverse sides of the body 2, as indicated at 10, and being adapted to make a snug fit within the longitudinal and transverse sides of the cover 3 so that the chest when closed is substantially air-tight. The inner surfaces of the box-like body are lined with flannel the same as are the liners 8.

The bottom 6 of the chest is divided into a front portion 12 and a rear portion 13 by a rack 14, which may consist of a block of wood-like material, slotted as at 16, so that the slots 16 receive the shanks of articles of table silverware, such as different kinds of spoons and forks, with the handle parts of the silverware lying in the front portion 12 of the chest and the other portion of the article of silverware lying in the rear portion 13. All exposed surfaces of the rack 14, including the surfaces of the slots 16, are covered with flannel, or the like, as is usual in silverware chests.

A rack 20 is provided at the front bottom of the boxlike body 2 for receiving and holding hollow handled butter spreaders. The rack is located centrally of the box adjacent to the front thereof and comprises a block of wood having two rows of slots 24 therein and an upwardly extending ledge 26. All exposed surfaces of the rack, including the surfaces formed at the slots 24, are covered with flannel or the like 25 for preventing scratching of the articles held therein. Each slot 24 extends in a direction lengthwise of the tray, that is, in a direction parallel to the longitudinal edge 4 thereof, the respective slots of each row being spaced from one another in a direction transverse of the tray. The ledge 26 may comprise a piece of wood, or cardboard board of suflicient stiffness to serve the intended purposes. The two rows of slots 24 are separated from one another by a solid portion 28 from which extend parallel finger-like projections 30 (Fig. 3) that remain when the slots 24 are formed in the solid block that constitutes the base of the rack 20.

The ledge 26 of the rack 20 is provided to facilitate the use of the rack 20 for purposes other than holding butter spreaders. For instance, when the rack 20 is not holding butter spreaders the usual pieces of a carving set, such as a carving knife, carving fork and carving knife sharpener may be laid on the rack 20, these pieces extending on opposite sides of the rack and being held against sliding rearwardly of the chest by the ledge 26. Also, in lieu of a carving set or hollow handled butter spreaders the rack 20 may be used to support odd pieces of table silverware such as, for instance, serving spoons, serving forks, a gravy ladle, and the like, in which case the handle shank part of the piece of silverware may rest on the rack 20 and be held by the ledge 26 against movement rearwardly in the chest, while the deeper part of the article of table silverware rests between the rack 20 and the adjacent transverse side 5 of the box.

The cover 3 is provided with the usual lower rack 36 and upper rack 38 for receiving and holding knives, these racks also being covered with flannel or the like, and the lower rack 36 having a front 39 that is hinged at its lower end and is held in the position illustrated in Figure 1 by a spring clip 40, all as is well known in the art. When the cover of Figure 1 is in its lowered position the front 39 of the rack 36 overlies the space 13 of the chest, and the rack 38 overlies the rack 20. As a result, the rack 38 will overlie any carving set that may be placed in the chest on the rack 20 between the inner front edge 8 thereof and the ledge 26, thereby securely holding the carving set in place. The

racks

36 and 38 are also covered with flannel to inhibit scratching of the silverware that may be placed therein.

In compliance with the requirements of the patent statutes I have here shown and described a preferred embodiment of my invention. It is, however, to be understood that the invention is not limited to the precise construction here shown, the same being merely illustrative of the principles of the invention. What I consider new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A silverware chest comprising an open-top, boxlike body, and a rack within the'body and extending upwardly from the base thereof at one end of the. body, said rack comprising a central block having two rows of fingers extending therefrom in opposite directions, the fingers of each row being spaced from one another in a horizontal direction in the box and forming between one another narrow slots which are adapted to receive the blades of butter Spreaders, said rack having a top surface for receiving articles of silverware, said rack being spaced from opposite sides of the box to provide space for the handles of butter spreaders held in the rack, and means projecting upwardly of said top surface at the end thereof remote from the forward end of the body to act as a stop for holding articles that may have been placed on the top of said rack from sliding 01f of that rack at that end thereof.

2. A silverware chest comprising an open-top, boxlike body, a rack within the body and extending upwardly from the base thereof at one end of the body, said rack comprising a central block having two rows of fingers extending therefrom in opposite directions lengthwise of the box, the fingers of each row being spaced from one another in a direction extending crosswise of the box and forming between one another narrow slots which are adapted to receive the blades of butter spreaders, said rack being spaced from the transverse sides of the box to provide space for the handles of butter spreaders held in the rack, the top of the rack being substantially flat to act as a support for articles of silverware, and an upwardly extending ledge at the end of the rack and spaced from and parallel to the adjacent end of the chest for holding articles of silverware against rearward movement into engagement with articles held in the chest, said rack and the slots thereof being lined to inhibit scratching of silverware that is held in the rack.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date D. 157,776 Naken Mar. 21, 1950 846,133 McIntyre Mar. 5, 1907 964,406 Dewitt July 12, 1910 1,441,437 Lee Jan. 9, 1923 1,665,214 McGraw Apr. 10, 1928 2,149,908 Poole Mar. 7, 1939 2,366,046 Naken Dec. 26, 1944 2,505,510 Vermillion Apr. 25, 1950 2,551,012 Kenah May 1, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 136,203 Switzerland Feb. 17, 1930