Synopsis
The more than 3,500 items in this unique private collection of cutlery, illustrated with 450 large colour plates, present the expert and the amateur with an outstanding survey of the changing shapes of eating implements from the palaeolithic to the twentieth century. The complete collection is divided into three parts. Part 1 covers cutlery from prehistoric times to the seventeenth/eighteenth century. Part 2 unites "table-ware" from the eighteenth century to the classicist period, which means cutlery laid out to "cover" the table (as in "cover charge"), an extension of its earlier derivation from French "coutelier", a cutter. Part 3 shows cutlery from the Historicism of the Neue Sachlichkeit period, and focuses on Art Nouveau or Jugendstil with its sheer endless/innumerable ideas for new shapes and designs by well-known artists and manufacturers. The very skilful displays of cutlery arranged by the author and collector, are illustrated in large format and natural size on 450 colour plates of superb quality and striking brilliance.
Every object is analysed in detail in the wide-ranging documentation supplemented by a bibliography keyed to different subjects, a comprehensive index of marks (foundry marks, silver marks, yellow metal and tin marks as well as manufacturers' marks) and several subject indexes.
