MUSEUM KNIFE WITH IVORY MICROCARVING AND HINGED HANDLE Netherlands, Amsterdam, dated 1604 on the handle cap, with a master's monogram on the inside. Rectangular, elaborately carved ivory handle with a Christian pictorial programme. The broad sides carved in high relief with a depiction of the Fall of Man and a crucifixion scene. The sacrifice of Isaac, the expulsion from paradise, Abraham praying (?) and the creation of Eve, as well as the sacrifice of Cain and Abel or Cain's fratricide and Cain's expulsion are depicted in flat relief fields above and below the depictions. Allegories of life and death are depicted on the narrow sides. The picture panels fold down to reveal almost fully sculpted figures of the infant Jesus and a skeleton. Rectangular, two-part silver handle cap crowned by a tortoise. Inscribed with a surrounding banner: HOVT. G. HEVA / OTS. COMMANDMENT IEHOVA / VOER ADAM / GEN ABRAHAM. The turtle on a locking system opening onto an odour box. Dated and inscribed inside: 1604 NIET SONDER MOE TEN and master's monogram. Rectangular ferrule. Blade root inlaid with gilded vine fillets. Centre-pointed blade with smith's mark in the shape of a fish. L 21 cm. Large crack in the ivory at the pictorial programme with Adam and Eve. Crack on the pictorial programme of Abraham. Loose fold-out plaque on the side of the skeleton. Side of the infant Jesus is stuck. Opening system at the top is stuck. Small crack at the top of the ivory. Inside inscription plaque loose. Losses to gold fillets and rubbed. Blade oxidised and corroded. Blade worn. For a handle with an equally rich, finely carved and biblical pictorial programme: see Klaus Marquardt. European cutlery from eight centuries. Stuttgart, 1997. p. 62/63, fig. 167. The knife described in the Marquardt collection is characterised by a large number of matching elements: The hinged ivory elements, the structuring of the pictorial programme, the Dutch inscription 'Niet sonder Moete(n)', which translates into German as 'nichts ohne Musse bzw. Mühe', the occurrence of the same house mark of a master probably from Amsterdam on the inside of the lid, the dating to 1605 (1604 in our case) and the hinged pommel plate with turtle attachment. The knife from the Marquardt Collection comes from the famous Richard Zschille art collection (see Arthur Pabst. Die Kunstsammlungen Richard Zschille in Grossenhain, Besteck-Sammlung. Berlin, 1893. plate 23, fig. 147). Another similar example with biblical iconography and ivory carving with fold-out elements can be found in the Museum Rotterdam (inv. no. 48237) and in the collection of the Klingenmuseum Solingen (inv. no. 2006.M.167). This object has a trade licence for the EU. Due to the use of protected materials, this object may not leave the EU.