Art Nouveau Paper Knife c1900 - The Rosewood dagger shaped
body Inlaid with Mother of Pearl, Zebra Wood and Ivory.
Paper knives were used to cut the folded pages of hand made books,
folded newspapers and magazines, the edges of the knife are slim,
designed to follow the crease of the fold and gently cut through it
but not so sharp as to tear through the rest of the page. Paper
Knives (often wrongly described as Page Turners or letter openers
which are slimmer and pointed) were necessary for anyone buying new
books, even in Victorian times many of the hand made books arrived
with uncut pages.
Whilst some paper knives are fairly utilitarian other such as this
example were little works of art with designers such as Rene Lalique
producing exquisite pieces, they were also made from a wide variety
of materials such as silver, ivory, lapis lazuli, malachite and
exotic woods.
This particular piece is a beautiful and rare Art Nouveau example
