Silver-handled knives were fashionable accompaniments to the English dining table early in the eighteenth century. To efficiently and economically produce the form, hollow handles were fashioned in halves, soldered together, and filled with a resinous composition. In America, English knives with steel blades were predominant, and no American example dating prior to the second quarter of the nineteenth century is known. Albert Coles became a major manufacturer of flatware and at an early date specialized in the production of knives.

Technical notes: The  handles were struck in halves, filled, and then soldered together. The blades and ferrules are made of close-plated steel.

Related examples: Fales 1958, no. 84.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.