Thomas Fletcher
Fish Knife

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Fish Knife
Datec. 1827–1835
Made inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
MediumSilver
Dimensions13 3/8 in. (34 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, museum purchase funded by the Bayou Bend Docent Organization
Object numberB.87.2
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Metals Study Room
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

The fish slice was intended to filet fish at the table. An eighteenth-century form, the earliest examples resembled wood-handle trowels and were distinguished by elaborately pierced and engraved blades. By the third quarter of the century the form was first produced in the American colonies. Thomas Fletcher's slice resonates with the boldness and scale that characterizes Grecian flatware. Its blade is painstakingly engraved with a classically inspired dolphin, and its fiddle thread and shell handle proffers the most fully developed expression of this conventional pattern.

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.


Provenance[William Core Duffy, Kittery Point, Maine]; purchased by MFAH, 1987.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Engraved: J.E.P.
Mark of Thomas Fletcher [Belden 1980, p.169, a]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Entrée Dish
Thomas Fletcher
c. 1830–1842
Silver
B.94.14.A-.C
Pitcher
Fletcher & Gardiner
1815
Silver
B.77.16
April
Henry Fletcher
1730
Engraving with etching and hand coloring on laid paper
B.59.68.2
March
Henry Fletcher
1733
Engraving with etching and hand coloring on laid paper
B.55.17.2
February
Henry Fletcher
1730
Engraving with etching and hand coloring on laid paper
B.59.68.1
December
Henry Fletcher
1730
Engraving, etching, gouache and watercolor on laid paper
B.59.68.7
October
Henry Fletcher
1730
Engraving, etching, gouache and watercolor on laid paper
B.59.68.5
June
Henry Fletcher
1730
Engraving with etching, watercolor, and gouache on laid paper
B.59.68.4
November
Henry Fletcher
1730
Engraving, etching, gouache and watercolor on laid paper
B.59.68.6
May
Henry Fletcher
1730
Engraving with etching and hand coloring on laid paper
B.59.68.3
July
Henry Fletcher
1730
Engraving with etching and watercolor on laid paper
B.55.17.3