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Total Dimension : 27 cm Blade Length : 12 cm Blade Width : 2 cm With Leather Pocket and Graveline Box This front lock knife was the property of a French monarchist emigrant who had fled the Revolution and especially the terror of 1793 and 1794. Marked "Humblot in Berlin", it had been quite surely conceived by by Humblot Ainé, a famous cutler in Nogent (in the east of France), quoted in Camille Pagé's encyclopedia as well as in the "Almanac du Commerce" of Sebastien Bottin in 1830."Berlin" is probably an apocryphal inscription or a least it is posterior to the making of the knife, which seems to have taken place in Nogent, cradle of the fine cutlery industry at that time and place of residence of Humblot. Graveline have decided to recreate this knife which is, according to them, a unique piece, because like all the ancient models which they have realized so far, it has a certain number of criterions they consider necessary for the starting up of a new study. By this they mean that it possesses an indisputable historic interest, an aesthetics and a remarkable sobriety of lines, and finally one or several technical difficulties susceptible to bring them to the rediscovery of old know-how that have now disappeared. The Royalist Emigrant knife meets perfectly these three requirements. A knife of mourning but also a signal of recognition among monarchists in exile, it has a black side in tortoise shell decorated with a silver medallion, engraved "Le Roi est mort" (The King is dead) and showing a shot phoenix whereas three bows of silver in the form of tears underline the sadness of such an event. The other side is made of ivory, also inlaid with an engraved medallion 'Vive le Roi" (Long live the Roi) and where we discover a resuscitated phoenix taking its flight towards a new fate. The famous myth of the phoenix, represented here by the engraving, was associated with the strong opposition of both materials : ivory and tortoise shell. This as a whole represents quite clearly the profoundly long-lasting nature of the monarchy. This knife is like a real book on the history of its time. |
