Post #381349 by Carmine Verandah on Mon, May 19, 2008 9:22 PM

La Fee Absinthe has the basics at a reasonable price: http://www.lafeeabsinthe.com/ -- although many of its items are marked with its advertising logo. Not a bad logo as these things go.

I bought a few items a few years ago from a web site called absinthe originals which appears to now be defunct. La Verandah would recommend Ebay, so long as you choose a dealer with an excellent rating and don't believe quite all the advertising. Even under the category of "antiques," most of the items can not be honestly classified as such. They are reproductions.

Which is fine, so long as you are not paying the price good antiques should command. For regular use, it's best to have items you can easily replace anyway. When La Verandah has a largish soiree she brings out the tall glasses and forks -- a well-balanced fork nicely takes the place of an absinthe spoon.

If you really want some gen-u-wine absinthe antiques, study up on what they look like -- there were many manufacturers of glasses, spoons, carafes, dispensers, etc. back in the day -- and keep a look out for old stuff that the seller may not recognize for what it is. People who sell Victorian-era silverware, for instance, might label an absinthe spoon as some kind of pie server. OTOH, La Verandah has seen a few "absinthe spoons" which were really antique berry servers or some such (the Victorians and Edwardians were mad for a plethora of silver utensils -- it was considered tacky to touch food with one's bare fingers).

One good source for absinthe and history of its accessories is La Fee Verte: http://www.feeverte.net/