Knife thumbnail 1
Not currently on display at the V&A

Knife

1631 (dating)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Handle of silver with engraved designs, the engraved lines inlaid with black composition. The finial and bolster gilded. The handle is engraved on one side with an allegorical scene of Prudence (a scene which depicts Moses and the stone tablets of God's Ten Commandments, and in the foreground a seated man instructs a child with an open Bible; an angel above holds a crown over the man's head; the word 'IEHOVA' ('God') in the sky); below this scene is a squirrel and a naked woman seated, holding apples. On the other side of the handle, the allegorical figure of Beauty (a seated woman combs her hair and looks into a hand-held mirror; three cherubs around her: one holds a crown above her head, another beside her holds a bird, the third supports the mirror); below this scene is a squirrel and a naked woman, seated, who holds a palm leaf.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Steel, silver and gilded silver
Brief description
Netherlands, silver and gilded silver with a steel blade, the handle dated 1631, the blade marked with cutler's mark 'B' a crown above.
Physical description
Handle of silver with engraved designs, the engraved lines inlaid with black composition. The finial and bolster gilded. The handle is engraved on one side with an allegorical scene of Prudence (a scene which depicts Moses and the stone tablets of God's Ten Commandments, and in the foreground a seated man instructs a child with an open Bible; an angel above holds a crown over the man's head; the word 'IEHOVA' ('God') in the sky); below this scene is a squirrel and a naked woman seated, holding apples. On the other side of the handle, the allegorical figure of Beauty (a seated woman combs her hair and looks into a hand-held mirror; three cherubs around her: one holds a crown above her head, another beside her holds a bird, the third supports the mirror); below this scene is a squirrel and a naked woman, seated, who holds a palm leaf.
Dimensions
  • From tip of handle to tip of blade. length: 22cm
Marks and inscriptions
Engraved
Credit line
Salting Bequest
Production
Decoration after the style of Johann Theodor de Bry
Subjects depicted
Bibliographic reference
Hollstein, F. W. H., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts c. 1450-1700, vol. IV (Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger, 1951).
Collection
Accession number
M.614-1910

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Record createdMarch 24, 2005
Record URL
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