Lovely antique French Palais Royal marked set of twelve 7 7/8" luncheon or entremet sized table knives with hand painted floral enamel or porcelain handles, original Paris marked steel blades and also the original fitted storage and/or presentation box! The inside lid of the box is marked "L. Bally, 47 Galerie Montpensier, Palais Royal". This set comes from the shops of the old Palais Royal, formerly the Richelieu Palace, which became a shopping and theater arcade in mid-1700s and host to Kings, Emperors, Elite of Europe and abroad. If you have been there, you know just the arcade I mean. I was just there, and they're renovating it to become a modern luxury retailer's 'mall' of sorts, which service it was in when this needlework set would have first been purchased, sometime in late 1700s to as late as perhaps 1830. The central court of the Palace grounds is a garden, and it is surrounded by apartments on upper floors, and on the ground floor, a great array of boutiques and shops that would have then carried the finest luxury goods possible to acquire. Everything from large and expansive (and expensive) layered vanity sets for royals, with silversmith names like Biennais, Odiot, earliest Puiforcat, and loads of fine old French opaline glass trinkets and objects. You'd have found the finest in French silver, glass, clothing and finery of leather goods. You'd find exotic carved and sculpted items, fine foods and restaurants catering to the very highest strata of culture. And from that lauded early shopping center comes this lovely set of table knives, complete in the original box.
Good condition. All have the original steel blades, they predate stainless so you do see some age tarnish and/or corrosion. Two of the handles have cracks in the enamel or porcelain, shown in the images. The box is in okay shape, as you can see, with two age splits in the lid and one in the base. See pictures for all measurements.
