Description:
English two-tine fork (part of a set of six forks and six knives) with a soft-paste porcelain, pistol-grip handle or haft decorated in pink, orange-red, yellow and gilding with two gilt-rimmed reserves of flying insects, bugs, butterflies and bees on a white background surrounded by a light and dark blue scale ground, and a single butterfly on white at the end, and scalloped silver mount, and steel blade and tines. Porcelain hafts were introduced into Europe from China, and the subsequent demand stimulated the production of porcelain hafts at many European factories. Chelsea appears to have been the first English factory to make porcelain hafts, sometime just prior ot the mid 18th century, when the factory was using the triangular mark. Hafts of colored continental-style polychrome wre produced alongside contrasting, plainer white halfs with patterns in relief, similar to Bow. The Saint-Cloud factory near Paris specialised in Baroque moulded ornament and underglaze blue, while the Bow factory in London, which produced similar designs, dominated the English market. Specialising in making blades, cutlers trained as apprentices for up to seven years, working for a freeman cutler who housed and fed them. In England a cutler would have to prove himself as bladesmith and hafter (maker of handles) in order to obtain the freedom of the Worshipful Company of Cutlers, gain his own mark and set up his own business. Many cutlers acted as middlemen who bought blades from bladesmiths, handles from hafters and sheaths from sheathers. They assembled the cutlery themselves and sold them under their own names. Until the 17th century, it was the custom for guests to bring their personal cutlery, but by the 18th century knives and forks were provided in matching sets by the host. The basic form of knives and forks had also become standardised by this date. By the mid-18th century, table knives and forks were usually made in sets and decorated to match the rest of the cutlery. By the end of the 18th century the standard pistol-shaped haft (handle) gave way to straighter, flat-ended hafts; forks generally had smaller hafts. The knife blade is usually of sabre, or scimitar, shape. The steel blades and shanks have a 'tang' or rod at the base that fits into the hollow handle, which is then packed with resin. The junction between haft and blade is fitted with a small metal collar, or 'ferrule.' The set was identified as Chelsea by the ECC on a visit on May 13, 2010. Colonial Williamsburg Ceramics curator John Austin identified them as Worcester.
Subjects:
Pottery; Enamel and enameling; glaze (coating by location); polychrome; Porcelain Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+62.087.5 |
