Retirement Gifts

"Now they have time to enjoy the finer things."

Retirement is the moment someone finally has time to set the table properly, cook the Sunday lunches they always meant to, and enjoy the things they've quietly deserved for years. These are the gifts from your catalogue that feel worthy of that moment — curated by buyer type and budget.

Your guide to Retirement Gifts

Retirement gift FAQ

What makes a good retirement gift?

The best retirement gifts are ones that feel personal, lasting, and appropriate to the occasion. Fine cutlery, silverware, and engraved pieces are particularly strong choices because they combine craftsmanship with permanence — and because they’re things the recipient will genuinely use and appreciate every day.

Can retirement gifts be engraved?

Yes. We offer engraving on a wide range of pieces in our retirement collection, including tankards, photo frames, cutlery canteens, and individual pieces. Engraving typically adds 5–7 working days to your order. Call us on 01458 258 458 to discuss what’s possible before ordering.

What is a good retirement gift budget?

Individual retirement gifts typically start from around £149 for something beautiful and meaningful. Office collections often pool £300–£600 or more. For truly heirloom pieces — sterling silver, Robbe & Berking, or a full Sheffield canteen — budget from £500.

Do retirement gifts arrive gift-boxed?

Most products in our retirement collection arrive in presentation packaging — ready to give straight from the delivery box. Cutlery sets always arrive boxed. For engraved pieces, please allow additional time.

Can I send a retirement gift directly to the recipient?

Yes. Simply enter the recipient’s address at checkout. Add a personal note in the order comments and we will include it with the order.

What are the best retirement gifts for women?

Sterling silver photo frames, champagne flutes, and elegant cutlery sets tend to resonate strongly as retirement gifts for women. Our Francis Howard Durham photo frame (from £220) and the Robbe & Berking Martelé champagne flute (£310) are both particularly popular.

What are the best retirement gifts for men?

The silver plate 1-pint tankard (£375) is one of the most classic retirement gifts for men — particularly when engraved. The Forge de Laguiole Thuya sommelier corkscrew (£185) and the Robbe & Berking sterling silver grill set (from £565) are also standout choices.

Hospitality Customers

Visit our hosplitality page for more informtation or call for a quote.

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Call: 01458 258 458

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Superb quality, speedy delivery. Delighted, thank you.

I bought it for my daughters wedding gift because I had always wanted one and she loved it so I am happy

Disappointingly small. The ‘rattail’ turned out to be an incised pattern not a proper rattail.
My search continues.

Dear Marcus Barbor
Thank you for taking the time to review your cutlery. We are sorry for your disappointment, however, no one makes the raised rattail – or ‘proper rattail’ that you are looking for.
The traditional English “rattail” (or “rat-tail”) fork and spoon pattern is one of the oldest surviving flatware forms in Britain, dating from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The “tail” itself was originally not decorative at all — it was structural.
For early spoons especially, the bowl and handle were often forged separately and then joined together. The raised rib on the reverse — the rat-tail — reinforced that junction and concealed or strengthened the soldered join.
Forks evolved slightly differently, but the same principle applied in many early examples:
• The tines/head were forged separately from the stem.
• The handle/stem was then fire-welded or brazed onto the fork head.
• The raised “tail” on the reverse strengthened the weak point where the neck met the fork head.
• On hand-forged examples, the rat-tail was often hand-drawn with hammer work after joining.
Early English Hanoverian forks from roughly 1700–1750 commonly show a very pronounced rat-tail because the construction genuinely needed reinforcement.
By the Georgian period, metallurgy and forging improved enough that the structural need largely disappeared. The rat-tail gradually became shallower and then decorative only. Around the later 18th century, many Hanoverian forks lost the rat-tail entirely.
Most modern “rattail” cutlery is made completely differently.
Modern stainless rattail forks are usually:
• stamped from a single blank,
• rolled and pressed in dies,
• with the “tail” formed by coining/pressing rather than forging.
The tail today is usually just a shallow pressed ridge because:
1. there is no structural joint to reinforce,
2. deep forging is expensive,
3. modern stainless alloys are much stronger than early wrought silver or iron.
Traditional hand-forged silver rattail patterns still exist today from specialist makers, but they are niche luxury production rather than mainstream manufacture.
If you are searching for traditional Rattail teaspoons (you bought 6 from us) with the raised ridge-you will need to search in the antique market.
There isn’t a single cut-off date when manufacturing techniques changed over, because methods overlapped for decades and varied by maker. But broadly:
• Fully hand-forged two-piece silver rattail forks remained common through the 18th century.
• High-end Sheffield and London silversmiths still used forged-and-joined construction into the mid-19th century.
• Industrial drop-stamping and die-forging increasingly replaced them from roughly the 1840s–1880s.
• By the early 20th century, almost all commercial EPNS and stainless rattail cutlery was one-piece stamped construction with decorative tails only.
So the “last” true structural rat-tail forks were probably being made by traditional silversmith workshops into the late Victorian or Edwardian era, but mainstream production had effectively moved to one-piece manufacture by about 1900–1920.
One useful clue when examining antique pieces:
• On genuinely old hand-forged forks, the rat-tail is usually asymmetrical, deeply raised, and organically blended into the neck.
• On modern stamped versions, it tends to be perfectly centred, shallow, and mechanically uniform.
The very pronounced rat-tail seen on early English silver is essentially evidence of the transition from forged multi-part flatware to industrial one-piece manufacture.
I hope this helps inform your search for a ‘proper Rattail’.
We do have a 30-day no-questions-asked returns policy. Your order was placed 30th March 2026, so slightly longer than this time period; however, we are happy to take the spoons back if you no longer want them. Please contact us directly to return them and we will issue a refund provided they are unused, in a new condition, and re-packaged accordingly.
If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Lincoln House Cutlery.

Highest standard and so comfortable to hold and use.

Hi Maureen,
Thank you so much for leaving us a 5 star review - we’re over the moon!
Thank you for shopping with us and we hope to see you again soon :-)
Lincoln House Cutlery

This was a gift for a chef friend but I opened it to admire it before I gave it to him. It was truely a thing of beauty! When he received it his message simply said ‘Best Pressie Ever!’

Hi, Thank you so much for leaving us a 5 star review - we’re over the moon!
Delighted that your chef friend was delighted with the Forge de Laguiole Butter Knife - and they are right; it is a thing of beauty. I have one at home as well and love it - use it daily and it's always a joy!
Thank you for shopping with us and we hope to see you again soon :-)
Lincoln House Cutlery

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