Sugar tongs

[2] The tongs appeared at the end of the 17th century,[3] and were very popular by 1800, with half of the British households owning them.

[2] The decline of the formal tea party led to the disappearance of the sugar tongs, in the 21st century they are considered an oddity at the table in their original role, but had acquired a new meaning: the tongs now represent Englishness (somewhere along with Miss Marple).

[4] Also, these tongs still can be used to serve small candy, string beans, slices of cucumber, celery sticks.

Egan Mew[5] follows the evolution of the utensil through: The early tongs were scissor-like, occasionally in fancy shapes like storks with long beaks[8] or puppets grabbing the sugar with their hands.

[9] In the late Georgian era piercing popularity had declined, and the thongs were made to match the contemporary spoon designs (for example, with the fiddle pattern).