Would You Pay $75,000 for a Fantasy Pocketknife?



Fantasy fiction, Conan the Barbarian comic books, World of Warcraft, Harry Potter—totally not my thing. But if sci-fi/fantasy is a genre you (or any number of your customers) are into, you’ll fully appreciate the uniqueness of this one-of-a-kind pocketknife by Portland, Oregon–based designer William Henry.

Wiliam Henry Silver Warrior Knife
Silver Warrior Knife; William Henry

You’re also potentially more familiar with the artist Frank Frazetta, whose 1972 painting, The Silver Warrior, inspired the pocketknife’s design.

Original Silver Warrior Frazetta
The Silver Warrior, a painting by Frank Frazetta

(For some background on Frazetta’s prolific career as a highly regarded fantasy and science fiction illustrator see this short obituary from the Arts section of the New York Times in 2010.)

Conceived by a team of designers and executed in sterling silver by a master engraver, the pocketknife captures Frazetta’s warrior in remarkable detail—note the sculpted muscles, elaborately decorated armor, and windswept hair (the fearsome polar bears are depicted on the reverse side). Deluxe accents of 24k gold and blue sapphires bring in a painterly element, while the hand-forged, razor-edged stainless Damascus steel blade is almost too striking to keep folded in place.

With a $75,000 price tag, this is clearly a pocketknife one displays as an objet d’art (no basement workbench for this guy), but William Henry has also debuted an 18-piece, limited-edition collection of men’s jewelry built around The Silver Warrior that’s comparatively more affordable. Hand-crafted in sterling silver and bronze, with stones such as sodalite, sardonyx, and blue sapphire, the pieces range from $175 to $1,250 and include a rather masculine assortment of pendants, bracelets, and a ring.

Meanwhile, I did a little digging and turns out Frazetta also created movie posters and album art. As in:

Whats New Pussycat Poster ImdbImage via imdb.com

and

hermans hermits both sides frontImage via wimwords.com

Wouldn’t a jewelry collection based on these two works—something with a mod, Swinging Sixties slant—be groovy?

 

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Amy Elliott

JCK Contributing Editor

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