A Bow porcelain Knife and Fork, circa 1755
Of pistol grip and painted in a bright underglaze blue with hatched foliage, stylised strapwork and lambrequins. The upper parts are decorated with bell flowers suspended from a cell-pattern border beside the silver ferrules. Fitted with a steel two-pronged fork on a baluster stem, and a scimitar blade.
The decoration, with its Renaissance-inspired lambrequin designs loosely derived from the broderie ornaments of the designer Jean Berain (1640-1711) and his followers, is very much in the manner of early Saint-Cloud porcelain.
Provenance: An English Private Collection.
Dimensions: Length of knife (including blade) 20.8 cm; Length of fork (including tines) 21.9 cm.
Condition: No damage or restoration. The hafts are well painted and there is only a little blurring in places, from manufacture. The fittings are good and sharp.
A Review of Bow and Worcester Knife and Fork Hafts, Tony Stevenson (ECC Transactions, vol. 13, no. 3, 1989).
Bow Porcelain: The Collection formed by Geoffrey Freeman, A. Gabszewicz & G. Freeman (Lund Humphries, 1982).
Cutlery: From Gothic to Art Deco – The J. Hollander Collection, Jan van Trigt (Petraco-Pandora NV, 1999).