Two-tined Fork With A Bronze Handle, Made In The 18th Century In France

Two-tined fork with bronzehandle representing a woman holding a ‘rommelpot’ (drum)under her arm, an erotic symbol (gilded).

Note: The motif representing a woman with a drum isrelatively common. It can be found, for example, on a handle preserved at theVictoria & Albert Museum, dated around 1620 (see Masterpieces of CutleryArt of Eating, exhibition catalogue, London, 1979, p. 28, no. 113). Other handles featuringthis motif can be found in the Hollander collection (Musée d'Art etd'Histoire de Nice, Couverts de l'art gothique à l'art nouveau, Nice, 1994,p. 65, fig. 92). Another example is kept atthe Museum of Decorative Arts in Budapest (see Gertrud Benker, AlteBestecke, ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Tischkultur, Munich, 1978, p. 69,ill. 84).

Reference: a similar model in the book “Cutlery from Gothic toArt Deco” The J. Hollander Collection p. 113 no. 187 (fork)

Dimension: fork length of 19 cm.

France made circa 1700/20.