Design for Knife Handles, from Mansches de Coutiaus

Design for Knife Handles, from Mansches de Coutiaus

Johann Theodor de Bry

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Two knife handle designs, with a standing female figure with a shield contained in an oval on the design at left. At right, a winged putti head under a canopy above a candelabrum with a basket of fruit at bottom. Both designs on a blackwork background.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for Knife Handles, from Mansches de CoutiausDesign for Knife Handles, from Mansches de CoutiausDesign for Knife Handles, from Mansches de CoutiausDesign for Knife Handles, from Mansches de CoutiausDesign for Knife Handles, from Mansches de Coutiaus

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.