CIRCA 1740, THE SILVER MOUNTS BEARING THE MARK OF CHRISTOPHER NICHOLLE

This pair of mahogany knife cases are of unusual bowed form, the large majority of such pieces being serpentine-fronted. The form is recorded in Robert and James Adam's designs published in Works in Architecture, 1740, pl.VIII, while a pair of Vizagapatam ivory-inlaid rosewood knife cases of the same shape, c.1760-70, are illustrated in Amin Jaffer, Furniture from British India and Ceylon, London, 2001, p.194, no.43.

A similar pair of knife boxes were exhibited by J.W.Caldicott & Sons at the BADA Art Treasures Exhibition, 1932, and illustrated in the accompanying catalogue Art Treasures Exhibition 1932, fig. 129.