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Object Timeline
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Folding Pocket Knife
This is a Folding pocket knife. It is dated ca. 1695–1700 and we acquired it in 1985. Its medium is ivory, silver, steel, brass, enamel. It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.
text from "Manufacturing and Marketing in Europe 1600-2000" in Feeding Desire exhibition catalogue:
"Folding knives were clearly recognized as French speciality across the Channel in England. In 1769, Joseph Baretti, French secretary of the Royal Academy in London, was accosted at night in the Haymarket and killed his attacker with his pocket knife. Its blade was protected with a silver sheath, and the whole folded into a shagreen case. " I wear it to carve fruit and sweetmeats...it is a general custom in France not to put knives on the table, so that even ladies wear them in their pockets, " he explained to the judge. A witness testified, " The outside is silver, the inside is stell, to cut a little bit of bread with." He was acquitted since he carried it as an eating tool, not a weapon. (fig. 11)"
This object was
donated by
Eleanor L. Metzenberg.
It is credited The Robert L. Metzenberg Collection, gift of Eleanor L. Metzenberg.
Its dimensions are
L: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.)
It has the following markings
On blade: unidentified cutler's mark
Cite this object as
Folding Pocket Knife; ivory, silver, steel, brass, enamel; L: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.); The Robert L. Metzenberg Collection, gift of Eleanor L. Metzenberg; 1985-103-169
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500-2005.
