13 - FRANCE OR THE NETHERLANDS, BOURGUIGONS, First half of the 15th century

FRANCE OR THE NETHERLANDS, BOURGUIGONS, First half of the 15th century Rare carving knife and its case, which also contains a single blade Handle made of rock crystal, carved with two flutes on the inner surface, with a chiseled, engraved, and gilded silver mount; the end is shaped like the roof of a conical turret pierced by three dormer windows, surmounted by a finial. The tang is decorated with a scattering of gold fleurs-de-lis on a blue background. Wide, leaf-shaped blade, stamped with the cutler’s four-pointed star mark; the other blade bears the same mark. Inscriptions in Gothic script appear on the pommel and the ferrule: on the lower band, LAUS (Praise); on the upper band, SAINTILE (?). The sheath, made of red morocco leather with gold fleur-de-lis embossing, features a case with three compartments: two large ones, each designed to hold a carving knife with a wide blade, and one smaller one for a skinning knife. Knife and blade: France or Burgundian Netherlands, first half of the 15th century. Case: 17th/18th century. Dimensions: knife, length 37.3 cm; case, length 41 cm Condition: minor wear on the case. Provenance: private collection, Dijon; Sadde auction, Dijon, March 2018, lot 97; private collection, Monaco. This lot is accompanied by an export certificate for a cultural artifact, No. 198349, dated 2018. Historical note: At medieval banquets, noble households employed a carving party to slice meat and game at the table, as illustrated in the January miniature from the *Très Riches Heures* of the Duke of Berry. Some knives were used for carving, others for skinning or pricking the meat; still others, with blunt blades, were reserved for serving. The handle of this knife, decorated with azure strewn with gold fleurs-de-lis, suggests that it most certainly belonged to a chief carver at a princely or ducal court. In addition to the royal family, the coat of arms of the House of Valois in France could also be borne by younger branches, such as the Dukes of Burgundy, Berry, or Anjou. The case, made much later, is itself adorned with fleurs-de-lis, which further confirms that this set belonged to a family of high rank. The catalog for the 2018 auction in Dijon mentions that the Dijon family to which it belonged nicknamed it: the “knife of the Duke of Burgundy,” in reference to the knives of Philip the Good housed at the Dijon City Museum, made around the mid-15th century (inv. CA 1468). “SAINTILE.” This is most likely an approximate reading of an inscription in Gothic script, which is difficult to decipher on such a small object, and two plausible hypotheses emerge: The most likely explanation for the inscription “SANTILE” is “SAINT ELOY ” (Saint Eloi). Saint Eloi (c. 588–660), a goldsmith and bishop, is the patron saint of goldsmiths, cutlers, and all metalworkers. It was extremely common for cutlers and goldsmiths in the Middle Ages and the modern era to invoke this patron saint on their pieces (handles, guards, hallmarks), alongside a pious phrase such as LAUS DEO (Praise to God). The juxtaposition with “LAUS” on the lower band points precisely in this direction: the two inscriptions form a classic devotional pair—an invocation to God (LAUS DEO) and an invocation to the patron saint of the trade (SAINCT ELOY)—a well-documented practice on medieval bladed weapons and luxury tools, where such apotropaic phrases were engraved in the blade grooves or on the mountings. “An engraving by Nicolas-Xavier Willemin, published in 1839 in his *Monuments français inédits pour servir à l’histoire des arts*, attests as early as the 19th century to the renown of the knives of Philip the Good’s master cutler, confirming the long-standing interest in this type of object in Burgundian collections.” Reference work: Splendors of the Burgundian Court, Charles the Bold (1433–1477), exhibition catalog Bern – Bruges – Vienna, 2008–2010, Bern Historical Museum, Bruggemuseum & Groeningemuseum in Bruges, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, edited by Susan Marti, 2009.