Gothic Ivories Project | Handles of carving knife and serving knife (manche de couteau)

Handles of carving knife and serving knife (manche de couteau)

Handles of carving knife and serving knife (manche de couteau)

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Links

Subject
Secular. Hunting scene.

Repository Institution
www.ago.net

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Toronto, The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)

107455

Ivory (handle);steel (blade);silver (ferrule);leather (case)

Height: 109mm (carver handle); 106mm (server handle); 315mm (overall length)
Width: 30.4mm (carver handle); 36.9mm (server handle)
Depth: 16.3mm (carver handle); 20.6mm (server handle)

Carving knife: Young man fighting two lions. He thrusts his sword into the mouth of one lion while the other has sprung onto his head from behind.
Enamelled ferrule: two grotesque dragons fighting and a dragon and a lion fighting, with unidentified coats of arms.
Serving knife: Hunter with a hawk and hunter spearing an animal.
In the centre: medallions with dragons.
At the top, a human head flanked by dragons and topped by lion-like animals back to back with a large beast with open mouth.
Enamelled silver ferrule: grotesque and dragon.

Lowden 2008 and Museum's opinion 2008: Paris, c. 1350.

Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
No trace.

Reverse
Carved in the round.

Provenance
Thomson collection, Toronto: acquired from Sam Fogg, London, in March 2005; since 2008, The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Toronto.

Bibliography
J. Cherry, J. Lowden, Medieval Ivories and Works of Art: The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, 2008), cat. 39.

Image

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