Knife

An intricate vocabulary of techniques has been used in the enameling of the handle. The wider panels are in basse taille; a deep translucent blue laid over wave-patterned gold ground has been further decorated with a pattern composed of small pieces of gold and colored foil embedded between layers of the enamel. Framing and contrasting with these shimmering panels are bands of opaque and translucent colors in a raised technique associated with the Geneva-born enameler Jean Cotteau (1739?–after 1812), who was working at the Sèvres Manufactory in the same vein 1780–84.

Knives of this delicacy were probably not used on the dining table although it is possible this example might have been a fruit knife. Enameled gold knives are mentioned occasionally in eighteenth-century documents but without any indication as to their use.