- Joined
- Jan 27, 2000
- Messages
- 615
Seeing the silver fruit knives being posted here made me think of the one I've had stashed away for 29 years or so.
No, it's certainly not in mint condition. Nor is it of any great value as far as I know. But the story behind it is interesting. I found this while taking a nature walk deep in the woods near my parents house in 1973.
The funny thing is that even though I did do some treasure hunting during this time frame, I was not hunting anything on this particular day. While taking in the scenery, I noticed the handle shining through a mat of pine straw. I thought what I'd found was a sliver butter knife because I could see the grape leaf pattern. But when I lifted it from the pine straw I could see that it was some sort of folding knife.
I knew nothing of silver fruit knives at the time, and had no idea what I'd found. I took this thing to a couple of antique dealers who didn't know exactly what it was either. Finally, 25 years later in 1998, through the magic of the Internet, I found out from Mark Zalesky (Editor of Knife World) that it was an Albert Cole silver fruit knife made in the mid-1800's.
No, it's certainly not in mint condition. Nor is it of any great value as far as I know. But the story behind it is interesting. I found this while taking a nature walk deep in the woods near my parents house in 1973.
The funny thing is that even though I did do some treasure hunting during this time frame, I was not hunting anything on this particular day. While taking in the scenery, I noticed the handle shining through a mat of pine straw. I thought what I'd found was a sliver butter knife because I could see the grape leaf pattern. But when I lifted it from the pine straw I could see that it was some sort of folding knife.
I knew nothing of silver fruit knives at the time, and had no idea what I'd found. I took this thing to a couple of antique dealers who didn't know exactly what it was either. Finally, 25 years later in 1998, through the magic of the Internet, I found out from Mark Zalesky (Editor of Knife World) that it was an Albert Cole silver fruit knife made in the mid-1800's.