Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-wpx69 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-21T20:06:45.119Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

XVII.—On a Set of Table-knives in the British Museum made for John the Intrepid, Duke of Burgundy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2011

Get access

Extract

In the year 1855 the British Museum acquired a set of four knives with enamelled handles in a leather case decorated with incised designs. The handles are richly ornamented with shields of arms, mottoes, and floral motives in translucent enamel upon silver, the grip having in addition strips of the speckled maple-wood used in the manufacture of mazers. These knives deserve description and careful illustration both for their artistic merit and also for their historical interest, it being possible to identify the two different persons for whom the instruments and the sheath were severally made. These persons were John the Intrepid, Duke of Burgundy, father of Philip the Good, and his daughter Isabel, Countess of Penthièvre.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1907

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 423 note a The total length of the two larger is 15 inches, that of the two smaller 9·4 and 8·3 inches; the blades of all four are now extremely thin. The knives were acquired with the Bernal Collection. They are reproduced on a small scale in the Guide to the Mediaeval Room (British Museum, 1907), fig. 139, p. 180.

page 424 note a Since this paper was read, several of the knives in the above list have been shown at the Exhibition of the Golden Fleece at Bruges (spring to autumn, 1907). They were mentioned in the Catalogue de l'Exposition de la Toison d'Or, to which references are given. It is possible that some of them may be reproduced in the large official work on the Exhibition, which is now in preparation.

page 424 note b Catalogo del Seale Museo Nazionale di Firenze (1898), p. 156, No. 855Google Scholar.

page 425 note a Viollet le Duc, Dictionnaire, ii. 77Google Scholar.

page 425 note b On the 13th of February to “Jaquot Le Topetet, coustelier, demorant à Dijon: 15 fr. Pour 5 paires de cousteaux, enguaignez et garnis d'argent et d'esmail.” This Le Topetet had been fournisseur to the Duke from 1372, and died in 1398. For other references see Bernard Prost, Inventaires mobiliers, &c. Index, s.v. Couteliers. The knives made for various dukes by the well-known cutlers of Langres seem to have been for the most part hunting knives or weapons.

page 425 note c He had a residence there, the Hôtel de Bourgogne, part of which still exists. See C. Enlart, Manuel d'Archéologie française, ii. 108.

page 426 note a H. Grote, Stammtafeln, 307 and 261; Anderson, John, Royal Genealogies, 2nd ed. (London, 1736), Tables 360 and 352Google Scholar. Upon the knives Burgundy modern is differenced by the engrailing of the bordurc.

As Countess of Nevers Margaret used upon her seals: 1, Burgundy modern; 2, Bavaria; 3, Burgundy ancient; 4, Hainault. In this case, owing to the dimidiation, the two Burgundy quarters are omitted.

For information as to these arms I am indebted to Mr. Max Rosenheim, F.S.A., and to Mr. W. H. St. John Hope.

page 426 note b At the instance of M. Destrée, director of the Musée des arts décoratifs, Brussels, who was good enough to transmit the inquiry to M. Paris.

page 426 note c The Order seems also to have been called Droit Désir.

page 427 note a Anderson, James, Royal Genealogies, ii. Table 360.Google Scholar

page 427 note b For the chantepleure see Victor Gay, Glossaire archéologique, s.v. arrosoir. Examples found in London are figured in the Journal of the British Archæological Association, v. 345–6, where the story of Valentine of Milan is also told.

Two chantepleures were found in 1906 in the City Ditch north of All Hallows Church, London Wall. Archaeologia, lx. 243.

page 428 note a Paradin, C., Devises héroiques (Lyons, 1557), 91Google Scholar. For the circumstances connected with the murder of the Duke of Orleans see Barante, Histoire des dues de Bourgogne, ii. 419.

page 428 note b Reproduced by Gr. Sangiorgi, La Collection Carrand au Bargello (1895), pl. 82; but better by Victor Gay, Glossaire archéologique, 481. It has the Annunciation and an armorial device on backgrounds of fine floral scrolls.

page 428 note c V. Gray, Glossaire archéologique, s.v. Couteau.

page 429 note a In the Musée Condé at Chantilly. See Le Musée Condé: Le Cabinet des Limes: Manuscrits (Paris, 1900), i. 64.Google Scholar

page 429 note b This was the usual form of carving-knives in fact it is much the same as the form still preferred in France.

page 430 note a Another large bread knife was the chaplepain, which appears to have somewhat resembled the broad-bladed présentoir used for clearing up crumbs and for serving fish or pastry to the guests. Examples of the présentoir may be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Salting Collection), in the Bargello, the Louvre, and other museums.

page 430 note b Inventory of a.d. 1458: a case for “quatre couteaulx à servir le roy nostre Seigneur à table. Quatre paires de conteaux à tailler sur la table, garnis de quatre paires de parepains. (Laborde, Inrentaires des dues de Bourgogne, No. 1192.) In an inventory of a.d. 1368 we read the following: Payé á Thomas de Frevillier, coustellier, demourant à Paris, 12 fr. pour une paire de cousteaux de table avec le taillepain, le petit coustel et les guainnes (B. Prost, Inventaires mobiliers … des Dues de Bourgogne, vol. i. p. 166, Paris, 1902).

page 430 note c Published in 1866. See also the references given in the Archæological Journal, xxvii. 78Google Scholar.

page 430 note d See the Catalogo del R. Museo Nazionale di Firenze, Nos. 855 ff. pp. 156–7.

page 430 note e Archæological Journal, ix. 120 (three knives in a case); Proceedings, 2nd Series, xvii. 9.