A carved boxwood apple scoop and corer made in England and dated 1690.
These small scoops enabled people who had lost their teeth to eat foods such as apples and pears. They have been in use since prehistoric times and must rank as one of the oldest eating utensils in the world.Apple scoops were very personal items and in some areas it was considered bad luck to share one. Most scoops tended to be quite plain and made from animal bone. Elaborate ones, like this, often seemed to be given as love tokens.