A Bow porcelain Knife and Fork, circa 1755
Of pistol grip and painted in 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.
Condition: The fork haft has two hairlines, and the knife haft has had several small sections restuck close to the ferrule.
Dimensions: Length of knife 22 cm (including blade); Length of fork 17.9 cm (including tines)
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).