Object details
Accession number
M18s21.a-d
Primary Creator
Japanese
Full title
Chopsticks, Knife, and Scabbard
Creation Date
early 19th century
Provenance
Purchased by the art collector and design theorist Denman Waldo Ross (1853-1935) in China.
Gift from Denman Waldo Ross to Isabella Stewart Gardner, 21 December 1923. (as Chinese)
Dimensions
13.5 cm (5 5/16 in.)
Display Media
Silver with mother-of-pearl
Web Commentary
When Denman Waldo Ross gave this set to Isabella, he wrote "I remember how successfully you used the chop sticks when you had Chop Suey with us: so I am sending you a pair of them with a knife to cut up things. I bought the little set in China and have no doubt that the late Empress Dowager had one just like it!"
Permanent Gallery Location
Little Salon
Bibliography
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 147. (knife as Japanese, dated early 19th century)
Rights and reproductions
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