On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Knife

ca. 1900 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This cake knife, and the rest of the set, is in the prevailing Art Nouveau style. It is chased with a design of blossoms, leaves and berries entwined around the handle, and was commissioned, and possibly executed, by Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch (1861-1908), a younger member of the then exiled Serbian royal family.

Karageorgevitch spent a dilettante life as a musician, writer and craftsman living in Paris. The individual pieces are inscribed variously with the monogram BK and the signature of Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch.

Prince Bojidar belonged to the senior line of the Karađorđević dynasty. He was the second son of Prince George Karageorgevich and his wife Sarka Anastasijević (his older brother was Prince Alexis Karageorgevich). His grandfather Prince Aleksa was the eldest son of Karađorđe Petrović, the founder of the House of Karađorđević and leader of the first Serbian uprising.

Prince Bojidar lived in France for most of his life as the members of the Karađorđević dynasty were in exile after Prince Alexander Karađorđević lost the Serbian throne in 1858. Bojidar travelled a lot and went on a number of trips around the world. He served in the French Army and fought in the French campaign at Tonking and was decorated with the Cross of the Legion of Honour. To earn a living he gave singing and drawing lessons before becoming a translator and journalist.

During one of his trips abroad, he travelled extensively around India, visiting thirty eight cities. He wrote a book about his experiences called Enchanted India in which he offered an account of the Indian people, their religious rites, and other ceremonies. He also provided detailed descriptions of the Indian landscape and buildings. He also translated works of Tolstoy and Hungarian dramatist Mór Jókai.

Taking an interest in art, he visited Munich, Dresden, and Berlin and spent some months in Italy; afterwards he settled at Paris. There he regularly contributed articles to the Figaro, La Revue de Paris, the Magazine of Art (Ilya Repin, Jules Bastien-Lepage), including a biography of Marie Bashkirtseff in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th Edition, Vol. III. Like all journalists he was drawn to the cabarets of Montmartre, the haunt of artists, writers, poets, philosophers. It was there he met and befriended French stage actress Sarah Bernhardt, pioneer of modern dance Loïe Fuller, French poet, novelist and noted orientalist Judith Gautier, Suzanne Meyer-Zundel, Austrian composer Hugo Wolf, painter and illustrator Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and founder of the Ballets Russes Sergei Diaghilev. In his later years Prince Karadjordjevitch turned his attention in decoration, and executed panels and medallions for a Paris atelier as a designer, sculptor, painter and silversmith, and often spent time with Georges Lacombe, Émile Bernard, Paul Sérusier and other members of Les Nabis. Karageorgevitch's paintings, illustrations, watercolors and silversmith works were first exhibited in Belgrade in 1908.

Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
Silver, cast and chased
Brief description
Silver knife designed by Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch, France, ca. 1900
Physical description
Silver cake knife, moulded and chased with a design of blossoms, leaves and berries, entwined round the handle.
Dimensions
  • Height: 0.3cm
  • Length: 19.2cm
  • Width: 1.9cm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
  • Inscribed with the monogram BK and the signature of Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch
  • signature of Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch
Credit line
Dr Percy Spielmann Gift
Object history
Prince Karageorgevitch was a member of the former reigning family of Serbia. He was a musician, writer and craftsman who was resident in Paris.
Subject depicted
Summary
This cake knife, and the rest of the set, is in the prevailing Art Nouveau style. It is chased with a design of blossoms, leaves and berries entwined around the handle, and was commissioned, and possibly executed, by Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch (1861-1908), a younger member of the then exiled Serbian royal family.

Karageorgevitch spent a dilettante life as a musician, writer and craftsman living in Paris. The individual pieces are inscribed variously with the monogram BK and the signature of Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch.

Prince Bojidar belonged to the senior line of the Karađorđević dynasty. He was the second son of Prince George Karageorgevich and his wife Sarka Anastasijević (his older brother was Prince Alexis Karageorgevich). His grandfather Prince Aleksa was the eldest son of Karađorđe Petrović, the founder of the House of Karađorđević and leader of the first Serbian uprising.

Prince Bojidar lived in France for most of his life as the members of the Karađorđević dynasty were in exile after Prince Alexander Karađorđević lost the Serbian throne in 1858. Bojidar travelled a lot and went on a number of trips around the world. He served in the French Army and fought in the French campaign at Tonking and was decorated with the Cross of the Legion of Honour. To earn a living he gave singing and drawing lessons before becoming a translator and journalist.

During one of his trips abroad, he travelled extensively around India, visiting thirty eight cities. He wrote a book about his experiences called Enchanted India in which he offered an account of the Indian people, their religious rites, and other ceremonies. He also provided detailed descriptions of the Indian landscape and buildings. He also translated works of Tolstoy and Hungarian dramatist Mór Jókai.

Taking an interest in art, he visited Munich, Dresden, and Berlin and spent some months in Italy; afterwards he settled at Paris. There he regularly contributed articles to the Figaro, La Revue de Paris, the Magazine of Art (Ilya Repin, Jules Bastien-Lepage), including a biography of Marie Bashkirtseff in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th Edition, Vol. III. Like all journalists he was drawn to the cabarets of Montmartre, the haunt of artists, writers, poets, philosophers. It was there he met and befriended French stage actress Sarah Bernhardt, pioneer of modern dance Loïe Fuller, French poet, novelist and noted orientalist Judith Gautier, Suzanne Meyer-Zundel, Austrian composer Hugo Wolf, painter and illustrator Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and founder of the Ballets Russes Sergei Diaghilev. In his later years Prince Karadjordjevitch turned his attention in decoration, and executed panels and medallions for a Paris atelier as a designer, sculptor, painter and silversmith, and often spent time with Georges Lacombe, Émile Bernard, Paul Sérusier and other members of Les Nabis. Karageorgevitch's paintings, illustrations, watercolors and silversmith works were first exhibited in Belgrade in 1908.

Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Greenhalgh, Paul (Ed.), Art Nouveau: 1890-1914. London: V&A Publications, 2000
  • Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch as a Silversmith, London, The Magazine of Art, January 1901, p.185
Collection
Accession number
CIRC.148-1964

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Record createdDecember 30, 2003
Record URL
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