File:Folding knife (FindID 59738).jpg

English: A complete copper-alloy handle of a Roman folding knife with an erotic scene. Measuring 50mm in total height and c22mm in width.

The iron blade of the knife survives as a corroded iron deposit within the slot for the blade and can be seen within the handle, through the areas which would have originally have been openwork.  The corroded blade remains and the length of the blade slot indicate that the blade would have had a maximum length of no more than 45mm.
 

The handle is moulded in the round and probably depicts a standing male figure who is engaged in sexual intercourse with a woman seated on the bent shoulders of a third person, who is kneeling.  The standing man supports the woman's legs around his waist.  The group is set on a plain square pedestal, which has a copper-alloy rivet in situ through one corner, to attach the iron blade of the knife.  The figures appear to be naked, although it is hard to tell due to wear.  The modelling is crude and the details of the figures were probably originally poorly indicated and are now even more so due to wear.  The slot for the knife blade runs up the back of the standing male figure.
 

An almost identical knife handle, without any remains of the iron blade, of the same size and depicting the same erotic scene has been discovered at Verulamium in fourth-century deposits (Frere 1984, C Johns 56-59, fig 23, no 217).