What are Bone Dishes?

I find bone dishes at estate sales and antique stores all the time, so I decided to take a picture of one this weekend and write a little something about them. Below is the picture.

Basically, a simple definition of the bone dish is a crescent shaped dish used for discarded fish bones.

Bone dishes were an essential table item in the Victorian era. The Victorians loved their specific dishes and kitchen utensils! Bone dishes were used to keep the unappetizing fish bones away from the food. Most bone dishes are crescent shaped to fit around the round dinner plate easily, but also came in different shapes. Bone dishes were mainly made out of porcelain and china, and decorated with different patterns. They were also a common bridal gift.