iPhone was invented in the 17th century, jokes Apple CEO Tim Cook

The object is in fact a letter – arguably the iPhone of the 17th century

Man Handing a Letter to a Woman in the Entrance Hall of a House

Tim Cook says he isn’t sure he knows when the iPhone was invented after he saw one of the handsets in a 350-year-old painting.

The Apple boss says that he spotted an iPhone in a 17th century Dutch painting on a trip around Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum.

Asked during an event in Amsterdam whether he knew where and when the iPhone was invented, Mr Cook joked that he was no longer sure.

"You know, I thought I knew until last night,” Mr Cook said in response to a question from Dutch former politician Neelie Kroes. “Last night Neelie took me over to look at some Rembrandt and in one of the paintings I was so shocked. There was an iPhone in one of the paintings.”

During the event, the pair showed a picture of the painting that included the blurry little object in the hand of a man. “It's tough to see but I swear it's there," Mr Cook said.

Man Handing a Letter to a Woman in the Entrance Hall of a House (Wikimedia Commons)

The painting isn’t actually by Rembrandt, instead being the work of painter Pieter de Hooch. And it is usually referred to as “Man Handing a Letter to a Woman in the Entrance Hall of a House”, making clear what the little thing in the person’s hand really is.

In the conventional narrative, work on what is now known as the iPhone started in 2004 when Apple assigned employees to start working on “Project Purple” – initially a tablet, rather than a phone. The phone was revealed at the beginning of 2007 and went on sale later that year.