A VERY FINE DUTCH SILVER-MOUNTED KNIFE AND SHEATH, the knife with leaf-shaped single-edged blade struck with maker's mark, a pair of spectacles, and figured maplewood (?) handle of flattened oval section (small knot-hole and crack, both filled) with silver mounts comprising tall beaked cap surmounted by a lion-mask with a ring in its mouth, and engraved with strapwork, a sailing ship, a figure of Fortune, and the owner's 'merchant's mark' and name, 'Leyn Iopssen', and lower ferrule engraved with foliage; the rounded boxwood sheath minutely carved on front and back with Old Testament scenes in panels, each surmounted by identifying label, the sides inscribed respectively 'Die Hier Comt Om Mi Toe Besien' and 'So Hi Gvnt Moet Hem Geschien', and with silver mouth-locket and chape encircled by ring-holding lion-masks set alternately with panels of engraved foliage, the locket with two fixed suspension-rings at the rear, and the chape with ornamental terminal comprising cast and chased dolphins set alternately with acanthus leaves above a turned finial (wood trimmed slightly during working life to take chape), Dutch, dated 1610Knife 9½in., sheath 9½in.

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

A VERY FINE DUTCH SILVER-MOUNTED KNIFE AND SHEATH, the knife with leaf-shaped single-edged blade struck with maker's mark, a pair of spectacles, and figured maplewood (?) handle of flattened oval section (small knot-hole and crack, both filled) with silver mounts comprising tall beaked cap surmounted by a lion-mask with a ring in its mouth, and engraved with strapwork, a sailing ship, a figure of Fortune, and the owner's 'merchant's mark' and name, 'Leyn Iopssen', and lower ferrule engraved with foliage; the rounded boxwood sheath minutely carved on front and back with Old Testament scenes in panels, each surmounted by identifying label, the sides inscribed respectively 'Die Hier Comt Om Mi Toe Besien' and 'So Hi Gvnt Moet Hem Geschien', and with silver mouth-locket and chape encircled by ring-holding lion-masks set alternately with panels of engraved foliage, the locket with two fixed suspension-rings at the rear, and the chape with ornamental terminal comprising cast and chased dolphins set alternately with acanthus leaves above a turned finial (wood trimmed slightly during working life to take chape), Dutch, dated 1610 Knife 9½in., sheath 9½in.

細節

來源

R.N. Page Esq.
Sold in these Rooms November 2, 1983, lot 22

拍品專文

This set is an outstanding example of early 17th Century Dutch cutlery, and includes what appears to be the finest known silver-mounted sheath carved by the unidentified master or workshop using the signature 'WGW', whose dated oeuvre covers the period 1566-1626. The signature is normally carved on one side near the point, and was no doubt obliterated from the present sheath when the chape was fitted. The engraving is of the kind found on high-quality Dutch silver of the period, a number of examples of which bear similar lion-masks, amongst them a silver knife-sheath with a comparable chape-terminal by the Bolsward (Friesland) 'Master of the Cypher' (Frederiks, III, No. 205). A similarly-decorated knife and fork were in the Zschille Collection (Pabst No. 188)

For the work of 'WGW' see C. Blair, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor. Arms, Armour and Base-Metalwork, London, 1974, pp. 455-6, and C.L. Kuhn, German and Netherlandish Sculpture. The Harvard Collections, Cambridge, Mass., 1965, pp. 103-4; and for the mounts, J. Frederiks, Dutch Silver, I-III, The Hague, 1952-60, and A. Pabst, Die Kunstsammlungen des Herrn Richard Zschille, II, Berlin, 1887