Knife

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This knife with silver handle and steel blade was made by Edinburgh silversmiths W. & P. Cunningham, in 1815-6. The knife is known as a pistol-grip knife from the style of the handle.

The crest on the upper surface of the handle depicts a lady placed underneath a baron's coronet, holding a tower in her left hand and a palm-branch in her right hand. The maker's marks - 'W&/PC' are almost entirely rubbed away.

Domestic silverware was a matter of taste and status. The fashionable silversmiths of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen produced a wide range of goods, affordable only by the reasonably well-off.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-100-086-670-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  H.MEQ 1136
• Date: 1815 - 1816
  1815-16
  
• Material: [Silver handle, steel blade]. Inscription: J [small]; W& / PC [almost entirely rubbed away]
  
• Dimensions: 11.40" L; handle 4.60" L
  
• What:
• Subject: Gold and silver (NMAS Classification)
  
• Who: W. and P. Cunningham, Edinburgh (Silversmith)
  
• Where: Scotland, Midlothian, Edinburgh
  
• Event:
• Description: Knife with a steel blade and a rectangular silver handle with a shell butt, by W. and P. Cunningham, Edinburgh, 1815 - 1816
  
• References:
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