Grape scissors. © Cooksinfo / 2020
Grape shears (aka grape scissors) are special scissors used to separate small bunches of grapes at the table, so that you don’t have to tug the grapes apart.
These were popular in Victorian times up until the end of the Gilded Era with the advent of World War One.
While many minds today may boggle that someone thought these necessary, it is interesting to see how form followed function. The shears are small, only about 15 to 18 cm (6 to 7 inches) long. The handles are much longer than the blades, so that you can insert the blades deeply into a cluster of grapes. Most of the scissor ends have blunt tips, so that they won’t puncture the fruit.
The handles on antique ones can be made of silver (sterling or plate), and are often decorated (e.g. with depictions of grape clusters and leaves.) The blades are usually steel.
Whether someone calls them “shears” or “scissors” may be just a matter of preference or customary usage, but technically there is a difference: scissors will have finger holes of equal size, while shears have differently-sized finger holes.
More modern ones may be all stainless steel, or nickel plated.
Grape scissors. © Cooksinfo / 2020