SOLD - MOSES BRENT GEORGIAN SILVER LETTER OPENER, 1797

This is a rare Georgian silver paper knife or letter opener, hallmarked to both the blade and handle Moses Brent, London 1797, hand-engraved with the heraldic motif of a Stork at her Vigil. Wear-related scratches as expected in a piece of this age, as pictured.

The stork at her vigil is a heraldic emblem often associated with guarding: the myth is that when a stork keeps watch, she holds a stone in one talon, so that if she falls asleep she will drop the stone and this will wake her up again. It's used by a number of noble families, and was likely engraved for one of them when the piece was new.

Length 22cm

Weight 56 grams

Moses Brent was a specialist knife maker and was the son of William Brent of St. Mary Magdalen Bermondsey carpenter, apprenticed to Dru Drury knife handle maker. 6Th July 1763. Free, 7 November 1770. First mark entered as haft-maker, 11 July 1775. Address: Hind Court, Noble Street, Foster Lane. Second mark on removal to Well Yard, Little Britain, 28 June 1782. Third to seventh marks, 1788 to 1796. Eighth on removal to 42, Little Britain, 28 March 1799. Ninth as small worker,7 October 1800.Address :12 Kirby Street, Hatton Garden. Tenth to twelfth marks as plateworker, 1804-7. Thirteenth to fifteenth marks as small worker, 1809-12. Sixteenth mark as plateworker, 18 October 1813. Address: 22, Greville Street, Leather Lane. Seventeenth mark, 29 July 1815. Eighteenth, 18 February 1817. Address: 19 Leather Lane. From the very large number of his mark entries and the frequency they are met with on knifehafts and blades of his working period it is obvious that Brent had a virtual monopoly as specialist in this field to the retail trade of his day. His knives are constantly found accompanying “flat ware” made by Eley, Fearn and Chawner as supplied to Rundell, Bridge and Rundell for all their best clients. Heal records him only at Bell yard, 1783-9. His mark previously ascribed to Mark Bock who was dead by 1783.