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Goldsmith’s Art

Cutlery and case

Key data

Jakob d'Annone, Basle, ca. 1717/44

Silver gilt, engraved

worked morocco case

length of case 12.5 cm, width 5.5 cm, height 3.5 cm

Inv 1912.626.

Description

According to Amaranthe's Nutzbares... Frauenzimmer Lexicon (Useful lexicon for ladies), published in Leipzig in 1715, a set of cutlery consists of "knife and spoon case or étui, which is a container covered in gold and red leather and hollowed out, and in which lie a silver or ornately gilt spoon with matching knife and fork...". As late as the C18 one often took one's personal cutlery to a banquet, and certainly on one's travels. In view of the hunting scene with dogs, hares and foxes in morocco work on the lid of the case, the set might have been hunting cutlery. It was the personal property of a member of the Basle Bernoulli family, whose coat of arms is engraved on the gilt silver spoon. The knife blade was produced in an unidentified Basle factory; it is engraved with a Basle crosier.

Selection of similar objects

 
Contact

Basel Historical Museum
Management & administration
Steinenberg 4
PO box
CH – 4001 Basel

Reception: +41 61 205 86 00
historisches.museum(at)bs.ch

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