knife

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Object Type: knife
Museum number: 1866,1229.50
Description: Handle; originally belonging to a knife; silver with gold and niello inlay; octagonal in section; surface of six facets covered in engraved ornament; two facets undecorated; decoration includes - bands of fretwork in niello incorporating gold crosses, bands of guilloche in silver relief, vine scrolls, stems, and tendrils; the butt of the knife is outlined in vandyke moulding; inscribed.
Cultures/periods: Early Byzantine
Production date: 6thC
Findspot: Found/Acquired: San Francesco di Paola ai Monti, convent building (ruin of) (?;grounds)
Materials: silver; niello
Technique: engraved; incised; inlaid; relief
Dimensions: Length: 67 millimetres; Weight: 24.33 grammes
$Inscriptions
Bibliographic references: Shelton 1981 / The Esquiline Treasure (59); Dalton 1901 / Catalogue of Early Christian Antiquities and Objects from the Christian East in the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum (331); Buckton 1994 / Byzantium: Treasures of Byzantine art and culture from British collections (134); Kent & Painter 1977 / Wealth of the Roman World. Gold and Silver, AD 300-700 (96)
Location: Not on display
Subjects: plant
Acquisition name: Purchased from: Louis, Duc de Blacas d'Aulps
Previous owner: Previous owner/ex-collection: Baron von Schellerscheim (?); Previous owner/ex-collection: Monsignor Guilio Maria della Somaglia (?)
Acquisition date: 1866
Department: Britain, Europe and Prehistory
Registration number: 1866,1229.50
Conservation: Treatment: 14 Oct 1994

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