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Knife, fork and sheath: M.32A-C-1930

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Maker(s)

Cutler: Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

Wood and steel; the knife with steel scimitar-shaped blade and ebony handle carved with the bust of a man; the handle of the two-tined fork is carved with the bust of a woman; the sheath is covered in polished shagreen with a white metal rim mount

Wood and steel, shagreen and white metal; the knife (A) has a steel scimitar-shaped blade, a white metal ferrule and a wood, probably ebony, handle carved in the form of the head and torso of a man. The fork (B) has two long steel tines, a white metal ferrule and a wood handle, probably ebony, carved in the form of the head and torso of a woman. The sheath (C) is shaped oval in section and tapers to a point; it is covered in polished pearl ray shagreen with a white metal rim mount.

Notes

History note: Frank Smart Collection

Legal notes

From the Frank Smart Collection, given by T.J.G. Duncanson

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1930) by Duncanson, T. J. G.

Dating

17th Century, Late
Circa 1650 CE - 1700 CE

Note

The interior of the sheath is fitted with three cavities, two for the knife and fork and a third very small circular one for a lost implement. It is possible the sheath was made for a different set of cutlery.

People, subjects and objects depicted

Components of the work

Handle composed of wood
Sheath composed of shagreen Length 20.5 cm
Mount composed of white metal
Blade composed of steel
Ferrule composed of steel
Tines composed of steel
Fork Length 16.5 cm
Knife Length 18.9 cm

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: M.32A-C-1930
Primary reference Number: 167115
Old object number: M.2-1930
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Tuesday 18 September 2012 Last processed: Friday 8 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Knife, fork and sheath" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/167115 Accessed: 2024-03-28 14:16:32

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/167115 |title=Knife, fork and sheath |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-03-28 14:16:32|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-167115

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