Restaurant staff setting tables in a modern hospitality setting

Hospitality & Catering

Lincoln House supplies high quality cutlery and tableware to leading hotels, restaurants, bars, cafes, B&B’s, sports clubs and private organisations.

We offer a superb selection of high-quality products at different price points.

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Supporting the Hospitality Industry with Quality, Value and Personal Service

With over 50 years’ experience, we supply a wide choice of traditional and contemporary cutlery designs in stainless steel, silver plate and sterling silver, backed by highly professional service, at very competitive prices.

Choose from top brands – Arthur Price, Carrs Silver, Robbe & Berking, Studio William, Elia London and Amefa. We also proudly supply our own best-selling Sheffield range of stainless steel and silver plate cutlery.

We are able to provide a bespoke service to suit the requirements of your business. We offer engraving and etching options for lettering, crests and company logos – to create a product especially for you.

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Heritage, Expertise, and Exceptional Value

Why Choose Lincoln House Cutlery?

For over 50 years, Lincoln House Cutlery has supplied discerning restaurants, hotels, and hospitality venues with the finest British and European cutlery. As a second-generation family business, we combine deep industry knowledge with a commitment to quality, tradition, and personal service.

Our Heritage:
Established in 1967, we bring decades of expertise and a Sheffield manufacturing legacy to every order.

Extensive Selection:
Choose from over 300 classic and contemporary patterns, including exclusive designs from Arthur Price, Robbe & Berking, Carrs Silver, and renowned Sheffield makers.

Quality Without Compromise:
All cutlery is crafted to professional standards—sterling silver, silver plate, and stainless steel—ensuring durability and elegance for daily service.

Direct Trade Pricing:
We offer competitive trade prices. Simply contact us for a tailored quote based on your requirements—no minimum order quantities, and flexible solutions for every venue size.

How We Work With You

Personal Consultation

Speak directly with our cutlery specialists for advice on matching existing patterns, selecting new ranges, and planning bespoke projects.

Bespoke & Bulk Orders

Whether you need a full restaurant fit-out or individual replacement pieces, we source and supply efficiently, with fast lead times on best-sellers and made-to-order options available.

Engraving & Special Finishes

Add a personal touch with custom engraving— monograms, names, or logos —ideal for branding or special occasions. Special finishes are also available, such as satin or brushed.

Ongoing Support

Most of our hospitality clients are independent businesses who return for continuity of supply, competitive pricing, and a relationship built on trust and reliability.

Our Clients

Lincoln House is proud to supply cutlery and tableware to the following British and international clients.

Testimonial

"It was a pleasure working with Lincoln House – the team is extremely professional and very knowledgeable on their products. Opening Grantley Hall was very complex with four completely different dining experiences, which meant I needed options but also exceptional quality. Lincoln House delivered on point on time and in budget! Whatever my next project is, Lincoln House will always be in my suppliers list!"

Shaun Rankin
Chef Restauranteur / Consultant / Restaurant and F@B designer, GRANTLEY HALL, Ripon

Grantley Hall – 5-star luxury hotel . Ripon, North Yorkshire, England
Cutlery – Carrs ALBANY silver plate

Winteringham Fields restaurant dish with fine dining cutlery.

Winteringham Fields – Michelin-star restaurant, Lincolnshire, England
Cutlery – Robbe & Berking NAVETTE 60 Micron Silver

Royal St George’s Golf Club – host of the 2020 Open. Kent, England
Cutlery – Sheffield OLD ENGLISH silver plate

Royal Ocean Racing Club yacht sailing and silver plate.

Royal Ocean Racing Club – Transatlantic Race, winners prizes
Silverware – Sterling silver ARMADA dishes

Loch Lomond Golf Club – Golf resort and spa, Scotland
Cutlery – Sheffield BEAD silver plate

Grand Pacific Hotel with silverware and dining scene.

Grand Pacific Hotel – Luxury 5 Star hotel, Fiji
Cutlery – Carrs BEAD stainless steel

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Ready to elevate your tableware?

Contact us today to discuss your needs or request a trade quote. We’re here to help you create a memorable dining experience—one piece at a time.

Call us on 01458 258 458 – we’re here to help and advise you.

Send us a message using the form below to request our trade prices or a full quote – please specify the collection or brand you are interested in.

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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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Hospitality & Catering

How We Work With You

Personal Consultation

Bespoke & Bulk Orders

Engraving & Special Finishes

Ongoing Support

Request a quote or get in touch

Let customers speak for us