old French (?) pocketknife

[TimW]

Hello all,

I recently dug up an old pocketknife on a flea market. It clearly had a long life... It sports a mother of pearl handle / metal (gold?) bolsters. I guess it is French, but you input is welcome...

cheers

Tim


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[Gavin Nugent]

I'd say it was once a fine fruit knife or similar.

Gav

[laEspadaAncha]

In my experience, gentlemen's fruit knives tended to have blades made of silver or metals that weren't so susceptible to accelerated rust from the acidity of the fruit, the exception being the "melon testers" that did indeed have a long blade of this general form. However, I haven't encountered a melon tester as finely embellished as this knife.

Tim - could you post pictures of the reverse side of the knife? Also, what is the length of the knife? Are there any markings on the blade?

Also, the gold (-colored material) on the bolsters looks like thin sheet that has come off in a couple spots. Am I seeing this correctly? And if so, is the incising limited to the gold sheeting, or is it chiseled into the underlying metal as well?

Lastly, where are these killer swap meets at which you're finding this stuff?

[fernando]

Hi Tim,
Before you post further pictures, may i kindly remind you that we at the forum expect pictures to be directly uploaded to the threads, instead of links to the various hosting resources. This is vital to the maintainance of pictures in the forum archives and to avoid threads to suddenly appear with blanks, instead of the images there posted.
If you have any difficulty with the upload features, let me know.
In the meantime, you will not mind that, the pictures you have linked above were replaced with permanent ones.
Best.

[David]

It's just this easy....

[TimW]

Hy all

First and for all: I got the hint about the pictures. Thx for letting me know.

Regarding the knife: the handle is exactly 9.5 cm long and 1 cm wide. The complete knife opened is 17 cm long. The bolsters are indeed sheath material that is worn on some corners. Underneath seem to be some kind of resin / the motive is only in the plate material. Closer inspection shows me there used to be a 2nd blade (on the opposite side) / possibly silver. Unfortunately it broke off near the ricasso. No maker markings on the knife / blade.

As for the location of the market: found it in Brussels / Belgium / Marollen flea market (it's a daily market on a square called 'Vossenplein', part of the Marollen area). The best of all: I did not even bargain on the 3 € asking price

I received some more info on the knife: is is supposed to be French / made in Paris / 18 th century. Have a look at the hopefully correctly inserted picture (book from Dominique Pascal - Coutellerie de poche)