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Knife and fork from a set of marriage cutlery

Southern Netherlands
1590

Medium/Technique Silver
Dimensions Length: 21.5 cm
Credit Line Museum purchase with funds donated by Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art
Accession Number2023.338.1
ClassificationsSilver flatware

DescriptionThis very early marriage cutlery set has finely engraved silver handles with grotesques and cartouches containing scenes from the Bible. The names of the couple and 1590, the year they married, are engraved on the sides.
Fall of Adam; Tobias and Sarah. Roundels with two clasped hands holding a burning heart, and a pelican feeding her young.
ProvenancePrivate collector (d. by 2017), Wassenaar, The Netherlands [see note]; by descent to his family; about 2017, consigned by the family to Vendehuis der Notissaren, The Hague, unsold; about 2017, sold by the family to A. Aardewerk, The Hague; 2023, sold by Aardewerk to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 21, 2023)

NOTE: According to information supplied by the dealer, the cutlery had been in this family for several generations.