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Object Timeline
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Fork with Handle in the Form of a Female Herm Fork
This is a fork. It is dated 1600 -1650 and we acquired it in 1985. Its medium is steel, gold plated, bronze. It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.
text from "Sexual Politics of Cutlery" in Feeding Desire exhibition catalogue:
"True or not, popular opinion regarded Henri III as a cross-dressing homosexual. That he and his pampered favorites used rarified, Italianate forks (fig. 12) was mentioned to reinforce that claim. Although Italy was not a nation, stereotypes of "Italian" characters, including the widespread notion that all Italians were "effeminate sodomites", appeared regularly in contemporary pamphlets and travelogues."
This object was
donated by
Eleanor L. Metzenberg.
It is credited The Robert L. Metzenberg Collection, gift of Eleanor L. Metzenberg.
Its dimensions are
L x W x D: 22.2 × 2.8 × 1.7 cm (8 3/4 × 1 1/8 × 11/16 in.)
It has the following markings
Unmarked
Cite this object as
Fork with Handle in the Form of a Female Herm Fork; steel, gold plated, bronze; L x W x D: 22.2 × 2.8 × 1.7 cm (8 3/4 × 1 1/8 × 11/16 in.); The Robert L. Metzenberg Collection, gift of Eleanor L. Metzenberg; 1985-103-20
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500-2005.
