Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Carved in the round.

Object Condition
Ivory very smooth.

Comments
The blade bears an unidentified engraved mark, depicting a circle enclosing 2 crosses and a heart. On either side, the blade is engraved with a motif of three thistles. The leather case is decorated with foliated scrolls.
This piece is part of the same ensemble as OA 170B, also in the Louvre.

Provenance
Magnan de la Roquette collection; collection of Alexandre-Charles Sauvageot, Paris (no. 665); gift of A.-C. Sauvageot to the Museum in 1856; on loan to the Musée national du Moyen Âge-Musée de Cluny, by arrêté of 14 December 1936 (no. Cl. 22192 A), renewed by arrêté of 10 July 1986.

Bibliography
E. Lièvre and A. Sauzay, La Collection Sauvageot (Paris, 1863), pl. XXXVII.
A. Sauzay, Musée de la Renaissance [Musée du Louvre]. Notice des ivoires (Paris, 1863), no. 152.
E. Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire raisonné du mobilier français de l'époque carolingienne à la Renaissance (Paris, 1872-1875), p. 78, fig. on p. 76 (identified as belonging to the Nieuwerkerke collection).
C. R. Beard, 'Gravoirs and Knife-Hafts; a 19th-Century Fake Exposed', in Connoisseur 101 (1938), pp. 171-175, no. VII.
J. Mann, Wallace Collection Catalogues. European Arms and Armour, II, Arms (London, 1962), no. A887.
Trésors de table, exhibition catalogue, Brussels, Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire, 1984, no. 63.
Plaisirs et manières de table aux XIV et XVème siècles, exhibition catalogue, Toulouse, Musée des Augustins, 23 April-29 June 1992, no. 224.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), no. 278.