Knife

Object Type
This knife was described in a contemporary document of 1848 as a table knife and as such would have been intended for use on the dinner table with the first and second courses. The ornament of 'Fish, Flesh, Fowl and Game' represented the types of food commonly eaten as part of these courses and therefore the decoration on the knife would have been highly appropriate for its use.

People
The handle design was commissioned from the artist and educator Richard Redgrave in August 1847, and the knives were advertised for sale in Felix Summerley's Art Manufactures Circular of March 1848 by Henry Cole (1808-1882). Cole, the first Director of the V&A Museum, founded the experimental business venture Summerly's Art Manufactures in 1847, to improve standards of design by employing well-known artists to design manufactured articles for the home. The manufacturers Minton & Co. and Joseph Rodgers & Sons, who made this knife, supported the scheme by manufacturing the designs. The business was not a financial success, although some designs continued to be made after its virtual demise as Cole prepared for the Great Exhibition of 1851. Henry Cole presented this knife to the Museum in 1864.

Registered Design
The diamond mark on this knife blade relates to a design by the artist John Bell (1811-1895) for a bread knife which was registered by Joseph Rodgers & Sons in 1848. A number of pieces made for Summerley's Art Manufactures were registered with the Patent Office for three years to protect the designs. The blade shape is not in itself unusual and it is unlikely, given the complete drawing of the bread knife in the register, that it alone was registered. The other knives in the group of four given to the Museum in 1865 have an entirely different blade without a registration mark. It is likely that a broken blade at the time of the gift made it necessary to reuse a blade designed for a smaller version of the bread knife, with the Richard Redgrave handle.