Knife Rests

1990? Two knife-holders presenting a fox and a hare. 3½" x 1½" (hare) and 4" x 1". Unknown source. The elongated bodies fit with their role as knife-rests. Is there a fable of a fox and a hare? Yes, says Northcote, who presents this story: " A little timorous Rabbit, who had a safe retreat in his burrow underground, had often perceived an artful Fox lurking near the spot, as if watching for the first opportunity to seize and devour him. However, he lay secure for the present, as the Fox could not enter the small burrow. One day, soon after, the devoted Rabbit saw the Fox in deep confabulation, and seemingly in great amity with the Weasel. This, he conjectured, boded no good to himself, as he found but too soon to be the case; for presently after the Weasel entered his burrow, and attacked him with such fury and fierceness, that he had no other chance of saving his life but by flight. But no sooner bad he darted from his burrow, than he immediately found himself seized on by the Fox; who, together with the Weasel, began to tear him in pieces, when thus the unfortunate victim of their arts, in his dying agonies, uttered his complaint: “I foresaw that my doom was determined on when you two counseled together.” I presume that I acquired these as fable knife-rests. I have not been able to identify a larger set to which they might belong.

1980? Ceramic knife-holders as books. GA and LM. Green with gold highlights. 3" x 1". €18 from mathilde9662, Jan, '22. Two duplicates and four other members of the series -- LM, WL, TH, and FC -- found earlier from an unknown source. There is an extra of LM and an unhighlighted extra of GA. The highlights accent parts of the picture and the capital letters in the title. I have searched the web for further members of this set, with no luck yet. Might these be less good than knife-rests with a level center?

1920? Three more kniferests in the same style: "Heron," FG, and FC. Stephane Prudhomme? €60 from Eric Lussot, Le Rheu, France, through Ebay, Sept., '20. I worked hard to track the silvermarks on these three very nice kniferests. On the web they are declared to be by Stephane Prudhomme by at least one seller. Elsewhere they are grouped with the two already on this page. I tried hard to photograph the silversmith's "mark" but can only get a blurred representation. The scenes on the two above and on the three here are much more developed than those on the Prudhomme set of twelve listed nearby on this website.

1920? Two simple knife rests or porte couteaux, about 3⅜" inches long, made from folding over a plate of metal to form a triangular tent. On one panel of each is a fable scene: 2P or TH. Unknown source. The designs on these two are really quite intricate and include a good background: the houses, trees, and fences along the road of the race in TH and the vegetation along the trail for the iron and clay pots. I wish there were some markings to identify the maker of these lovely knife rests!

1920?Ten knife rests or porte couteaux, about 3½" inches long, representing Benjamin Rabier's presentations of La Fontaine's fables. Extras of FC and "Two Mice and an Egg." Silvermaker: Devouge Dupont. $350 for ten from paintingmorningstar through eBay, Nov., '05. Two for $89.95 from Nina Lindzon, through Ebay, Oct., '01. I first saw these—and was delighted with them--in the Clingnancourt flea market several years ago. I believe that the full set includes twelve. Each knife rest has been individually cast and is stamped with the signature, "Benjamin Rabier" and with the mark of the silvermaker in the form of a rectangle with the initials "P + a Spoon + D". The knife rests catch both something of the Art Deco era and of Rabier's continuous wit. In TH, the connection of the fencepost to the ground at the bottom of the hare's back paws is loose.

1930 Complete set of twelve silver plated kniferests (portes couteaux) by Stephane Prudhomme illustrating favorite fables. Apparently in the original box. $154.71 from brocs_en_stock on Ebay, Jan., '18. Each knife rest is a panel 3¼" wide and 1" high supported by triangles on the edges, whose other two sides are ¾" and 11/16". A sale on the internet was helpful for identifying this set as coming from Prudhomme. The small square towards the left edge in the top frame presents Prudhomme's mark, S and P around a caduceus. It took a high-resolution scan to produce the picture below of that mark. The twelve fables presented include expected standards like TMCM, CJ, GA, FS, WL, 2P, "The Hares and the Frogs," and "The Heron." There is also Florian's "The Monkey and the Magic Lantern. Three others are harder, at least for me, to identify. Is one "The Fox and the Cat"? What is the small object in their image? In another, two fowl seem to be arguing over a snail. In a final knife-rest there are three birds: might they be the mother lark and her young?