Object of the Week: A pair of Victorian carving knives with handles modelled as Shakespeare and Lord Byron

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Quality cutlery designs for the Victorians, who would eat with the help of carvings of William Shakespeare and Lord Byron

Sometime in the 1950s, Bill Brown spent 10 shillings on his first purchase – a knife and fork from a Dutch travelling set. Since then, the collector has built an incredible haul of cutlery across history, including an ivory pair of Victorian carvers, modelled with the busts of William Shakespeare and, on a two-pronged carving fork handle, the bust of Lord Byron.

A former graphic designer, Brown favoured aesthetics over history, trawling the Victoria and Albert Museum and the continent, where one of his favourite pieces – a child’s plastic spoon with a train design aimed at encouraging them to open their mouths upon hearing the words “choo choo” – remains.

Museums Sheffield bought 1,000 pieces from the Bill Brown Collection with the help of a £485,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund in 2003. “I could see trends which were not apparent before, such as the way the shape of the blade evolved and the changes in constructional technique,” Brown wrote in his book, British Cutlery – An Illustrated History of Design, Evolution and Use.

Images: sworder.co.uk

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Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/art554344-william-shakespeare-lord-byron-cutlery-object