manufacture. One of the most beautiful sets
of rare historic value now on view in the Victoria and Albert Museum is
part of a set of fourteen, the ivory handles being carved to represent
the kings and queens of England. These rare examples of the English
cutler's and ivory carver's art, dated 1607, have blades damascened with
gold. There are knives also with handles of amber, one very remarkable
set in amber over foil being decorated with the figure of Christ and His
Apostles on one side of the handles, and on the other side there is the
Apostles' Creed.

Among other materials used in the manufacture of handles for knives and
forks, some of the latter having two prongs and others three, chiefly
made in the eighteenth century, are: Battersea enamel on copper,
Staffordshire agate ware, Meissen porcelain, Venetian millefiore glass,
Bow porcelain, jasper, Venetian aventurine glass, enamelled earthenware,
and Chantilly porcelain. In many instances these handles made of such
beautiful materials are further decorated by miniature painted scenes
and floral ornaments. Another favourite material is bone, some of the
older handles being stained, mostly green, afterwards decorated with
applied silver in floral and geometrical designs. There are a few
maple-wood handles of the eighteenth century, and others of stag's horn
and of shagreen.

The knife box with its divisions, referred to elsewhere, is exemplified
in many remarkably fine cases to be seen in our museums and in isolated
specimens in private collections.

The interest in a collection of household utensils is greatly enhanced
by the halo of romance which surrounds the uses of some of them. This is
seen and understood by the collector of cutlery perhaps more than of
anything else, for many old customs have been associated with the giving
of cutlery, and superstitious beliefs have crept in.

The gift of cutlery at weddings was not always the prosaic thing it is
nowadays, for the cases and even the knives were often accompanied by
some sentimental rhyme or poetic inscription. Two knives, apparently the
gift of bride and bridegroom to one another, now in the British Museum,
are engraved with separate inscriptions. One reads:--

"My love is fixt I will not range,
I like my choice I will not change";

while on the other is engraved:--

"Witt, wealth, and beauty all doe well
But constant love doth fair excell. 1676."

The early uses of knives in associati