Thread by @GabeMoshenska

Hello @chatarch! This short ‘presentation’ in linked tweets is a mini-investigation of my late grandmother’s collection of stolen airline cutlery and the life stories it might tell. @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

@CHATArch It’s rare that I fly far enough to get a meal, and a very long time since it came with metal cutlery – I don’t fly Business Class, and my grandma certainly never did. The newest items in her collection probably date back at least 20 or 30 years @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

Airline cutlery is a big business – Emirates Airline has more than 1.2 million items of cutlery for their First Class and Business Class meal services. Imagine the carbon footprint of those tons of steel, constantly in transit. @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

@CHATArch My grandma Essie was born in 1922. Her first experience of international travel was by boat in 1945 via France and Cyprus to Palestine, where she worked in the kitchen of a Kibbutz for almost a decade. @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

Essie’s first experience of air travel, as far as I can tell, was when she left Israel in the mid 1950s and returned to the UK. 4 of the 11 pieces in her collection are from the Israeli airline El Al, founded in 1948 @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

These three forks have different forms of marking and logo – Essie returned to Israel many times over several decades to visit her sister and other family and friends. @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

Cutlery theft by passengers is a known factor in airline operations. British Airways introduced new cutlery as part of a rebrand in 1999, and lost 6000 sets in the first month. @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

@CHATArch According to British Airways, the worst offenders were passengers travelling to Sydney, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, and Florida. My grandma has no BA cutlery in her modest collection. @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

@CHATArch My grandparents were not wealthy, and air travel was a rare luxury: once every few years perhaps, and always to visit family – siblings in Canada and Israel, children and grandchildren in the US and Zimbabwe. @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

@CHATArch These trips are witnessed in the cutlery: two pieces from Air Canada, and one from Virgin Airlines. @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

Airline enthusiast discuss cutlery theft in their online forums. Some are disgusted, others point out that airlines factor a degree of loss into their operating costs. A few admit to stealing pieces themselves. @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

@CHATArch Some airlines even acknowledge it – Virgin airlines used to have cruet sets with ‘Pinched from Virgin Atlantic’ stamped on them. @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

@CHATArch Only large-scale thefts are notable or newsworthy: in 2013 a tourist group on a Singapore Airlines flight stole 30 sets of cutlery and refused to return them when confronted. @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

@CHATArch Some of grandma Essie’s pieces I have failed to identify – can anybody shed any light? Is the lefthand one even an airline piece at all? @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

Finally, an odd one out: an NHS knife, helpfully stamped by the makers – Hiram Wild of Sheffield – with a date, 1987. @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

Six of the eleven pieces in the collection are small forks, used by Essie as cake forks, which is how I first encountered them. This was a collection in use, not primarily souvenirs. @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

@CHATArch I imagine Essie as a subtle and moderately skilled cutlery thief, and I imagine airline staff turning a blind eye to a small older lady with a glint of mayhem in her eye. @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

@CHATArch In researching this talk I stumbled across an essay ‘A Mini-History of Modern International Aviation as Told in Stolen Spoons’ by Dennis Schaal, describing his father’s collection of 90 airline spoons @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

@CHATArch Frank Schaal lived in Florida (confirming British Airways suspicions noted earlier). Like Essie, he was born in 1922. I imagine they would have got on well. @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT skift.com/2013/09/12/a-m…

@CHATArch Grandma Essie passed away a few years ago, and I inherited her airline cutlery. It sits in its own little compartment in my cutlery drawer, oddments still in use. I think of her when I'm serving cake. @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

Things tell our stories, as we know. These pilfered silverware tell of a nervous and reluctant traveller, somebody who enjoyed cooking, eating and hosting, and of her family spread across the world. @chatarch #pilgrimCHAT

@CHATArch That's my lot! Happy to discuss and answer questions. Thanks to @chatarch for putting together such a great #pilgrimCHAT

A final point - photographing cutlery is hard, as they are so many convex and concave mirrors. Also challenging when the cat wants to play with them. Thank you Maurice 🐈

Well damn that’s interesting

https://twitter.com/lift_aero/status/1461171428456165378

Stolen airline teaspoons and blankets = intelligent, low cost marketing?

https://twitter.com/thatjohn/status/1141809614180274176?s=20