A Baroque ivory cutlery set

A Baroque ivory cutlery set

Comprising a knife and three-pronged fork of steel and ivory. The twisted ivory handles finely carved with grapevines and figural terminals – the knife with a putto playing cymbals, the fork with a faun playing a hurdy gurdy. The figures each seated upon shell shaped thrones, on the opposite sides finely carved mascarons. L of knife 22.5, of fork 19.5 cm.
Netherlands, first half 17th century.

Literature

Cf. a knife with an identical depiction of a faun playing a shawm in the collection of Jacques Hollander, illus. in cat. From Gothic to Art Deco, Antwerp 2003, no. 104. Two examples in enemelled gold in the David-Well Collection, illus. in cat. Orfèvrerie France XVIIe et XVIIIe siècle, Paris 1971, No. 84.