The Elements of a Home

The charming backstories of sixty-odd everyday household objects — why forks were once thought immoral, how napkins began as lumps of dough. A reminder, in SDF terms, that even the humblest object carries values and manners: the small, domestic end of the Ethics motto. Azzarito, a design historian and former managing editor of Design*Sponge, gathers more than sixty entries covering objects from every room in the house, with historical details drawn from Europe, Asia, North America and Africa. Among the stories: napkins began as lumps of dough in ancient Greece, and Plato is credited with one of the earliest alarm clocks, built from rocks and water.