I was flipping through a hundred-year-old issue of American Cookery magazine and near the back was a page showing free premiums that new subscribers to the magazine could select. I almost fell over when I saw a set of card suit sandwich cutters. I have a similar (but not identical) set that I use as cookie cutters.
My cookie cutters were once my mother’s, and she had them for as long as I can remember. The metal on my cutters is a little worn and some parts are shinier than other parts, but I really like them. They are a nice size and nicely cut the cookie dough. I’m now wondering if my cutters were originally intended to be sandwich cutters – though I tend to think that they probably are cookie cutters since they have metal on the top and it might be difficult to cut a thick sandwich with them.
I never really thought about it before, but assumed mine were mid-20th century cookie cutters. Now I am wondering if they are older than that and something that my mother originally got from her mother.
I still have these identical cutters, and can remember using them to help my mother make little sandwiches for her bridge club as early as 1949 or 1950. I don’t know when she received them, but we never used them for cookies, and she always referred to them as her ‘sandwich cutters.’ They worked just fine on bread, probably because they were metal, and the commercial white bread of the time would squish down a bit as you cut through it.
Wow, it’s amazing that you have these identical cutters, and used them to make sandwiches for your mother’s bridge club.
Mom had a similar set, and I still have the diamond. Don’t know where the rest went. She used hers for cookies.
I use the diamond one fairly often. It’s a nice generic cutter that can be used to make cookies in any season. I also occasionally use the heart one to make cookies for Valentine’s day. I don’t know when I last used the club and spade ones.
My grandmother had those! She used them for Christmas cookies. Hers looked old in the 1950s, and my grandparents were married in the 1920s, so I wonder if they were from when they were first married.
I bet you’re right that they were from when your grandparents first married.
What a great idea for cards with the ladies.
The cutters would make really fun sandwiches. I wonder if people serve sandwiches anymore when they get together to play cards.
I was wondering how many play cards these days.
hmm. . . I have no idea. My husband and I play cards with another couple once or twice a year, but it’s nothing that I do regularly.
Wow, how very cool. Great reading your narrative, Sheryl, and then your comments about the family sandwich cutters. If I owned a set, I might be tempted to make sandwiches with them when our friends came over to play cards. Great historical ad, thank you.
Once or twice a year we have friends over to play cards. Next time they come maybe I’ll have to use my cutters to make sandwiches to serve. It would give us something fun to talk about.
My mother had similar cookie cutters to yours. I may still have them, but I very rarely use cookie cutters. Perhaps my chef grandson will keep them and use them.
I have lots of things that once belonged to my mother or grandmother – many of which I use regularly. It fascinating how some items end up being used in several households across the years.
Yep…my mama had a set also! Cards and tea with the ladies!
I am amazed how many people apparently had this set of cutters.
An interesting find. I have 2 gallon sized bag of cutters. Most found at garage sales and thirft stores.
You must have some really fun cutters! I don’t have nearly as many as you, but each Christmas I go through my cutters and select which ones I’m going to use that year.
I do. I have some for Halloween and Easter. And just other random ones. Niece likes to come to our house and bake cookies.
How fun! I looked up sandwich cutters in the newspaper archives for that time period, and they were frequently advertised. Some came in a 3 inch size, set of 6. In addition to the card suits, they had a half moon style and a star style, and sold fro 39 cents to as high as 69 cents. Hardware stores, grocery stores, and drug stores advertised them, and some–like yours–featured an illustration of the cutters.
Thanks for researching. It’s amazing how popular these cutters were back in the day. I also have a star cutter. I hadn’t realized that was part of the set. I don’t have a half moon one – though it could have easily been lost over the years. I do, however, have a bell-shaped cutter that looks similar. I wonder if the half moon might possibly have been swapped out for the bell at some point in time.
The only styles I found were the card suit shapes, plus a fluted, circle, star, and the half moon shape or crescent. The earliest date I found was 1899 that mentioned the set of card party shapes. I could not turn up anything in the bell shape. My guess is that was one of the Christmas shapes. Also, in the earlier years, some advertised sets did not feature a heart, just the club, spade, and diamond, and sometimes a square or triangle shape. The cutters were advertised as a time-efficient manner of removing the crust, even though it wasted some bread. One cut a single slice of bread in the shape, and then put the fillings on the bread, as opposed to cutting a completed sandwich. It does seem like it would waste a lot of bread, unless the frugal hostess intended to use the leftover pieces in something else. Just another one of those inventions for the housewife who needed special items for everything, right?
I think you’re right that my bell one was probably part of a Christmas group of cutters. Several times over the years I’ve made canapes or sandwiches using hundred-year-old recipes that called for cutting the bread into shapes. Most recently I made Star Canapes. As you noted, there is a lot of waste when cutting out shapes. I remember that when I did the Star Canape that I was so concerned about wasting bread that I ended up freezing the scraps to use when I made stuffing.
Dorothy would salute you!
I also have some old cookie cutters of my mothers I seem to remember she did use them for sandwiches when we had birthday parties as children ideal for little hands 🙂
What a fun memory!
My great-aunt had a set of cookie cutters like yours, except she was missing the spade. Or at least, I never used the spade. We always made gingerbread cookies when we went to visit. I loved using the heart and diamond cookie cutters. She was born in 1902. I do wonder how old her cookie cutters were now.
What a nice memory! Given the birth year of your great-aunt, her cookie cutters might have been really old.
Yes, she treasured her cookie cutters. Cookies were a special treat.
My mother had sets of cookie cutters in that same construction, don’t recall them in the card-suit form. I recognized them with their little handle. I doubt they survived all their moves since 1978.
They have a really unique handle. It works really well to lift the cutter up after the cookie dough is cut.