Knife Handle (manche de couteau) (c. 1710–1730): Art, History and Details

Knife Handle (manche de couteau) (c. 1710–1730) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Saint Cloud Porcelain Factory (French).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Prior to the 18th century, personal flatware was produced in expensive materials as a luxury item that communicated wealth and status. Porcelain handles were introduced at the beginning of the 18th century, likely by the Saint-Cloud factory. This handle is decorated with a pattern in underglaze blue inspired by porcelain imported from China and has been fitted to a steel blade.

Object facts

• Title: Knife Handle (manche de couteau)
• Date: c. 1710–1730
• Creator attribution: Saint Cloud Porcelain Factory (French)
• Culture: France, Saint Cloud, early 18th Century
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: soft-paste porcelain, steel blade
• Dimensions: Overall: 19.1 cm (7 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1964.511

A detail from the museum

The Saint-Cloud porcelain factory was the first successful European manufacturer of soft-paste porcelain, a slightly off-white product that attempted to emulate the prized hard-paste porcelain produced by China and Japan.

Collection credit

The Norweb Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Dawson, Aileen. A Catalogue of French Porcelain in the British Museum. London: British Museum Press, 1994.
• Lahaussois, Christine. Porcelaines de Saint-Cloud. Paris: Union centrale des arts décoratifs, 1997.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.