ITALY OR FRANCE SECOND HALF OF THE 16th CENTURYServing knife partly in gilt bronze, the gilding continuing on the steel blade engraved with scrolls. The handle is successively decorated with a square of dots, acanthus leaves, two riveted mother-of-pearl plates and a Corinthian crown topped by the head of a bird of prey. Copper cutler's mark inlaid in the blade. This mark technique is found on a knife of the same period in the collections of the Victoria Albert Museum. Length : 30 cm - width of the blade : 3,4 cm