TABLE TOOLS.

Shannon News, 16 March 1926, Page 3

TABLE TOOLS.

KNIVES AND FORKS OF PAST GENERATIONS. At the Victoria and Albert Museum London, there is a very remarkable collection of table knives and forks from the thirteenth century down, wards, and from many countries In Europe, writes Guy Cadogan Rothbery, in the ‘Graphic/ They range from miniature sets, scarcely 4in. long in their etui, or double cases, to prodigious carvers 18in or more from tip to tip. Carvers from the fifteenth to the seventeenth cenjtury were commonly made in sets of two or more, with long blades for carving great joints and tiny thin ones .accompanied by hair.pin-like, two-pronged forks, for dissecting herons and small birds.’ Noticeable as is the difference in shapes, still more astonishing is the diversity in the materials used for handles and their treatment.

The table knife, as we know it today appears to be an evolution from the hatchet type of adze. At all events, the earliest mdtal specimens represent a long but attenuated chop per blade. One particular example, which wais dug up in Albania with a lot of coins, has a bronze cap. so that even then cutlers had notions of decorating their products. It was so with weapons of offence from the beginning, and naturally the plan was extended to dinner (tools, in the treatment of which much artistry was displayed. liatchet-shaped blades were soon given a curve, with the cutting edge on the ouster bend .a thoroughly practical design, which, it is curious to see, still largely prevails on the Continent, even with the most costly cutlery. just as, indeed, does (the outward spread of the fork prongs and the rat.tail strengthening ridge up the back of spoons from the tip of the handle to the end of the bowl. These primitive shapes including the three-pronged fork, are quite the fashion; just now with the worldfamous silversmiths across the Channel. It was about the early years of the seventeenth century that porcelain and choice earthenware began to be used for the handles of table knives. Many of these are charming, such as jthose turned out in Saxony, later in France (at Saint-Cloud, Rou. en) and then in England (at Bow, Chelsea, and in Staffordshire).. Good examples are hard to come by and are valuable. . -

Association has much to do with the pleasure of collecting, as with the Roman knife and its. Albanian me-, mories. But here is a hunting-clasp-knife of historic interest.. It belonged to Napoleon 1. who had-it a$ St. Helena, wher e it passed into - the hands of the wife of a local official,. and so came into the possession of Mr. A. Caton.Woodville. . Iffc is a formidable weapon, about 71 in long. The blade 'is thick and broad at the upper end, with at back strenthening rib. a deep cutting bevelled edge, and sharp point. Only just th 6 necessary amount of curve required for practical use is given, so that 1$ fits conveniently into the horn handle. For all its stoutness and serviceability it is also highly decorativ e in every detail, from the carefully-se-lected horn and silver mounting to the crowded damascening. The crown is of the. Imperial type, with a zoned, cross-ensigned globe, sup. poqted by the curved tips of the eagle’s wings and palm leaves., There is a freedom in the naturalistic treatment of. the foliage that removes this work from the imitative exravagance of Renaissance arabesques, as well as h<* formal; aridness of the usual Empire style. In the groove at the top of the bevel edge, the .treatment of he sharp point, and the strengthening spur, there is much to remind on e of some of the Corsican stilettos, of yhich here are many many types, ~ including the, deadly three-edged kind—seemingly modelled on the moufflon horn—-which is sharp and triangular towards the tip.