{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O109003"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O109003/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AE4027/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AE4027/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AE4027","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O109003/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O109003","accessionNumber":"2165 to M-1855","objectType":"Cutlery set","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This ivory knife case contains 12 knives and one fork. Knife cases such as this were designed to be portable. A black substance has been rubbed into the engraving to emphasise the outlines. Ivory was prized during the 16th century for its beauty and rarity.\r\n\r\nEbony, ivory, fish skin, tortoiseshell, amber, bone, horn and shell were all popular for decorating cutlery. Around 1730 ceramic handles were introduced to Europe from China. Although cutlers were required by their guilds to be able to make a complete knife, handles of carved ivory, silver, bronze and glass were usually imported or made by specialist craftsmen.\nKnives have been used since prehistoric times, but the history of  knives, forks and spoons for eating in Europe probably commenced in the fourteenth century, and their use became accepted by the sixteenth century. Until the late seventeenth century it seems to have been common practice for people to carry their own cutlery, often in a leather case. ","physicalDescription":"Ivory cutlery case containing 12 knives and one fork.  The case and handles are engraved with full-length figures of emperors and knights and a frieze of hunting subjects. The engraving is filled in with a black substance. The handle of the fork is engraved with a female nude. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"},{"text":"steel","id":"AAT133751"},{"text":"leather","id":"AAT11845"}],"techniques":[{"text":"engraved","id":"AAT53829"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Engraved steel and ivory and leather","categories":[{"text":"Eating","id":"THES48963"},{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Tableware & cutlery","id":"THES48888"},{"text":"Enslavement","id":"THES396519"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2006AE4027"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"116","id":"THES49908"},"free":"","case":"DR7","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"116","id":"THES49908"},"free":"","case":"DR7","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"116","id":"THES49908"},"free":"","case":"DR7","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"116","id":"THES49908"},"free":"","case":"DR7","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"116","id":"THES49908"},"free":"","case":"DR7","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"116","id":"THES49908"},"free":"","case":"DR7","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"116","id":"THES49908"},"free":"","case":"DR7","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"116","id":"THES49908"},"free":"","case":"DR7","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"116","id":"THES49908"},"free":"","case":"DR7","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"116","id":"THES49908"},"free":"","case":"DR7","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"116","id":"THES49908"},"free":"","case":"DR7","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"116","id":"THES49908"},"free":"","case":"DR7","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"116","id":"THES49908"},"free":"","case":"DR7","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"116","id":"THES49908"},"free":"","case":"DR7","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"knifecase","id":""}],[{"text":"knife (culinary tool)","id":""}],[{"text":"knife (culinary tool)","id":""}],[{"text":"knife (culinary tool)","id":""}],[{"text":"knife (culinary tool)","id":""}],[{"text":"knife (culinary tool)","id":""}],[{"text":"knife (culinary tool)","id":""}],[{"text":"knife (culinary tool)","id":""}],[{"text":"knife (culinary tool)","id":""}],[{"text":"knife (culinary tool)","id":""}],[{"text":"knife (culinary tool)","id":""}],[{"text":"knife (culinary tool)","id":""}],[{"text":"knife (culinary tool)","id":""}],[{"text":"fork","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Nuremberg","id":"x29057"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1580 - ca. 1600","earliest":"1575-01-01","latest":"1604-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Length","value":"22.4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"of case","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"19.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"of knives (whole)","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"6.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"of knives (ivory alone)","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"23.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"of fork (whole)","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"4.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"of fork (ivory alone)","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Blair noted that the designs derive from the engravings of the Nuremberg artist Virgil Solis (Blair 1974, p. 362). Bought from the Bernal Collection, Christies, London on 21 March 1855, lot 1679. \n\n<u>Provenance</u>\r\n\r\nRalph Bernal (1783-1854) was a renowned collector and objects from his collection are now in museums across the world, including the V&A. He was born into a Sephardic Jewish family of Spanish descent, but was baptised into the Christian religion at the age of 22. Bernal studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and subsequently became a prominent Whig politician. He built a reputation for himself as a man of taste and culture through the collection he amassed and later in life he became the president of the British Archaeological Society. Yet the main source of income which enabled him to do this was the profits from enslaved labour.\r\n\r\nIn 1811, Bernal inherited three sugar plantations in Jamaica, where over 500 people were eventually enslaved. Almost immediately, he began collecting works of art and antiquities. After the emancipation of those enslaved in the British Caribbean in the 1830s, made possible in part by acts of their own resistance, Bernal was awarded compensation of more than £11,450 (equivalent to over £1.5 million today). This was for the loss of 564 people enslaved on Bernal's estates who were classed by the British government as his 'property'. They included people like Antora, and her son Edward, who in August 1834 was around five years old (The National Archives, T 71/49). Receiving the money appears to have led to an escalation of Bernal's collecting.\r\n\r\nWhen Bernal died in 1855, he was celebrated for 'the perfection of his taste, as well as the extent of his knowledge' (Christie and Manson, 1855). His collection was dispersed in a major auction during which the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House, which later became the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), was the biggest single buyer. \r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Cutlery set, ivory, steel and leather, twelve knives and one fork in ivory case, Germany (Nuremberg), ca. 1580-1600","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Inventory of Art Objects Acquired in the Year 1855. In: Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, Arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol I. London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868, p. 67"},{"reference":{"text":"Blair, Claude (ed.), <u>Arms, Armour and Base-Metalwork. The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor</u>, Fribourg, 1974","id":"AUTH330442"},"details":"p. 362","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Trusted, Marjorie, <u>Baroque & Later Ivories</u>, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2013","id":"AUTH329728"},"details":"p. 417","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Christie and Manson, <i>Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Works of Art, from the Byzantine Period to that of Louis Seize, of that Distinguished Collector, Ralph Bernal</i> (London, 1855)","id":"AUTH403540"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Slave Registers: Jamaica: St. Ann. (1) Indexed, 1832, T 71/49","id":"AUTH403536"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Hannah Young, ''The perfection of his taste': Ralph Bernal, collecting and slave-ownership in 19th-century Britain', <i>Cultural and Social History</i>, 19:1 (2022), pp. 19-37","id":"AUTH403542"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Bernal, Ralph","id":"C2927"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"female nude","id":"x43960"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"SET OF KNIVES AND ONE FORK\r\nHandles and case of ivory, engraved in the style of Virgil Solis of Nuremberg (b.1514; d.1562)\r\nGerman; 16th century","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}}],"partNumbers":["2165-1855","2165A-1855","2165B-1855","2165C-1855","2165D-1855","2165E-1855","2165F-1855","2165G-1855","2165H-1855","2165I-1855","2165J-1855","2165K-1855","2165L-1855","2165M-1855"],"accessionNumberNum":"2165","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1855,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","knifecase","knife (culinary tool) [1]","knife (culinary tool) [2]","knife (culinary tool) [3]","knife (culinary tool) [4]","knife (culinary tool) [5]","knife (culinary tool) [6]","knife (culinary tool) [7]","knife (culinary tool) [8]","knife (culinary tool) [9]","knife (culinary tool) [10]","knife (culinary tool) [11]","knife (culinary tool) [12]","fork"],"assets":["2016JF1730","2016JF1731"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-09-29","recordCreationDate":"2005-02-04","availableToBook":false}}