Sugar tongs

Two different tools

Sugar tongs usually means small tongs used for serving sugar lumps. In Norwegian, sukkertang can also describe older tools for breaking hard sugar. Establish the function before describing the object.

Serving tongs

Serving tongs grasp and lift sugar lumps and belong with coffee and tea table equipment. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds silver sugar tongs designed by Josef Hoffmann around 1910 as part of a tea service.

Sugar nippers

Older sugar nippers instead have jaws with edges intended to break or divide sugar. They are associated with sugarloaves and sugar candy. Both handheld and fixed versions exist. They should not automatically be described as serving cutlery.

Recording and material

Photograph the object open and closed. Record gripping ends or cutting edges, joint or spring, dimensions and all marks. Note distortion and repairs. Identify the material separately; a pale metal alone does not establish that an object is silver.

See also fineness and fineness marks.

Sources

The Met: sugar tongs from a tea service and Audun Dybdahl in Store norske leksikon: sugar nippers.