It is a sterling silver gentleman's fruit knife made sometime between 1780 and 1900. For a 100-plus year old knife, it has almost no wear.
Before I receive some sarcastic comments, let me explain what a fruit knife is. In the late 1700's, it became fashionable among wealthy/aristocratic people in France to give gifts of these knives for eating fruit. Acidic fruit damaged fine steel/iron blades of the time. In addition, silver is anti-microbial and prevented infection. Aristocrats, even though they were wealthy, often had bad teeth, so they could not sink their teeth into an apple the way we do today. Thus, to cover up bad teeth, they developed a "fashion" to cut fruit into pieces with their pocket fruit knife and eat in a civilized manner. The French, being the fashion trendsetters of the time, passed this fruit knife trend to the rest of the world within twenty years, but for some reason it really took off in the British Isles. Sheffield, England became the leading manufacturer of fruit knives.
This knife is a "slippie", with one single-edge blade and one "seed pick" blade.
Both blades and the handle are sterling silver. The liners appear to be copper.
The silver is very soft, as pure silver metal usually is - the blade does not have a real edge. The folding action is smooth and solid. The back hinge and the back springs have been hand filed in a delicate crosshatch pattern.
The primary marking on the blade is a "sterling" stamp, and on other side of the base of the blade, the number "21" is stamped, each number individually hand-stamped.
The handle has the stylized head of a male lion on each of the four hinge/bolster ends of the handle, with a stylized "fleur de lis" oriented toward the center of the handle under each lion head.
The year 2000 value of the knife by a NYC-based appraiser was $300.00, and $450.00 by a Scottish appraiser. Since they wanted to buy this knife on sight, they were not very forthcoming about the origin or age of the knife.
Collecting these knives is a popular pastime in Great Britain, where knife ownership is more restricted than the USA.
I have not been able to identify the maker or exact age of the knife.
I don't collect this type of knife, so I would like to sell it to a collector for SOLD Shipped CONUS.
Shipping out of the USA would be additional costs. Five new PICTURES ATTACHED
Before I receive some sarcastic comments, let me explain what a fruit knife is. In the late 1700's, it became fashionable among wealthy/aristocratic people in France to give gifts of these knives for eating fruit. Acidic fruit damaged fine steel/iron blades of the time. In addition, silver is anti-microbial and prevented infection. Aristocrats, even though they were wealthy, often had bad teeth, so they could not sink their teeth into an apple the way we do today. Thus, to cover up bad teeth, they developed a "fashion" to cut fruit into pieces with their pocket fruit knife and eat in a civilized manner. The French, being the fashion trendsetters of the time, passed this fruit knife trend to the rest of the world within twenty years, but for some reason it really took off in the British Isles. Sheffield, England became the leading manufacturer of fruit knives.
This knife is a "slippie", with one single-edge blade and one "seed pick" blade.
Both blades and the handle are sterling silver. The liners appear to be copper.
The silver is very soft, as pure silver metal usually is - the blade does not have a real edge. The folding action is smooth and solid. The back hinge and the back springs have been hand filed in a delicate crosshatch pattern.
The primary marking on the blade is a "sterling" stamp, and on other side of the base of the blade, the number "21" is stamped, each number individually hand-stamped.
The handle has the stylized head of a male lion on each of the four hinge/bolster ends of the handle, with a stylized "fleur de lis" oriented toward the center of the handle under each lion head.
The year 2000 value of the knife by a NYC-based appraiser was $300.00, and $450.00 by a Scottish appraiser. Since they wanted to buy this knife on sight, they were not very forthcoming about the origin or age of the knife.
Collecting these knives is a popular pastime in Great Britain, where knife ownership is more restricted than the USA.
I have not been able to identify the maker or exact age of the knife.
I don't collect this type of knife, so I would like to sell it to a collector for SOLD Shipped CONUS.
Shipping out of the USA would be additional costs. Five new PICTURES ATTACHED
