A Fine Dutch Cased Cutlery Set - Late 17th Century

Lot No: 152. Comprising a table knife and fork, the former with bright single-edged blade flaring and drawn-out to a short tip at the point, turned compressed moulding at the top beneath a turned silver collar with foliate border, and ivory handle finely carved in the round as a standing figure of a gentleman in contemporary costume holding the grip of his sword in his left hand, the fork en suite and with two tines on a tapering spirally twist stem, the handle finely carved in the round as a lady in contemporary costume displaying a fan in her right hand: in their original fitted leather-covered wooden case lined in brown buff-leather, the lid decorated overall with tooled and gilt flowering foliage inhabited by a bird of prey and four further birds all against a ground of gilt florets, and in fine condition overall (one hook catch missing) - 20.3 cm. and 18.6 cm - Estimate: £3,000 - 4,000

Footnote: For similar examples see Cutlery, The Egloffstein Collection (15th-18th Centuries) in the Wartburg Castle, 1994, pp. 115-191, nos. 129-131; and for a case with similar tooled decoration see Couverts de l'art gothique à l'art nouveau. Collection Jacques Hollander, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Palais Masséna, pp. 30, 111 and 174, no. 217

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Bonhams. Fine Antique Arms & Armour from the Henk L. Visser Collection, 28 Nov 2007. Knightsbridge