Carved in the round.

…; from the Koninklijk Kabinet van Zeldzaamheden, The Hague; transferred to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1875; transferred to the museum, 1885

Object number: NG-NM-569

In their day, Stadholder-King William III and his spouse Queen Mary II of England were popular subjects for folk and applied art. For instance, their likenesses often feature on Delftware (cf. BK-NM-10105) or, as in this case, on cutlery handles. Good examples of ivory cutlery handles depicting this royal couple can be found in the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen and in the Marquart collection.¹¹J. Amme, Historische Bestecke, coll. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2011, nos. 226 and 227; K. Marquardt, Europäisches Essbesteck aus acht Jahrhunderten: Eine Kunstsammlung, Stuttgart 1997, no. 401.

The carved ivory or boxwood anthropomorphic cutlery handle had started to spread in the Northern Netherlands in the second half of the seventeenth century. During Stadholder William III’s reign of England, from 1689 to 1702, many finely-carved cutlery handles were exported to that country which in turn enhanced the quality of production there.²²S. Moore, Cutlery for the Table: A History of British Table and Pocket Cutlery, Sheffield 1999, p. 150. That period of Dutch influence sometimes makes it difficult to determine the origin of the handles. However, the present, somewhat primitively carved set can almost certainly be situated in the Northern Netherlands, in view of the depicted subjects combined with the decidedly orangist inscription on William’s sash: vij fa or aen (Vivat Oraenge, i.e ‘Long live Orange’). The smaller handle, depicting Queen Mary (NG-NM-570) would normally have belonged to a fork. Accordingly, the larger handle, with William’s likeness (shown here), would have been part of a knife. There are knife and fork handles from the Northern Netherlands portraying an opulently dressed gentleman and lady which are somewhat comparable in style. They too are kept in the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum.³³J. Amme, Historische Bestecke, coll. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2011, no. 222; the knife handles with erotic overtones in the J. Hollander collection are very similar to this set, see J. van Trigt, Cutlery from Gothic to Art Deco: The J. Hollander Collection, exh. cat. Ghent (Design Museum Ghent) 2003, nos. 129 and 130.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025

A. Staring, P. Geyl and T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, De Stadhouder-Koning en zijn tijd, 1650-1950, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1950, no. 361; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 344a; M. Van der Eycken and J. Bongaerts, Diest en het huis Oranje-Nassau, exh. cat. Diest (Stedelijk Museum) 1980, no. 129; K. Marquardt, Europäisches Essbesteck aus acht Jahrhunderten: Eine Kunstsammlung, Stuttgart 1997, under no. 401

B. van der Mark, 2025, ' or anonymous, William III, Stadholder of the Netherlands and King of England (1650-1702), Knife Handle, Netherlands, c. 1689 - c. 1702', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20062843