"Made in Sheffield" 1830-1930, A golden age ?

[Augie]

Will, Mike, thank you guys, it is a pretty impressive knife in hand.

 

[danno50]

Another great find, Augie!

 

[Campbellclanman]

Top Notch Knives shown on each and every page! The last page of Jack, Herder, Longblade, Rob - all showing amazing gorgeous old Sheffield's, and then Augie lays down the full stop of the page with that outstanding Favorite! Wow- That's another very very nice Knife! Typical early Sheffield Lads and lasses - taking the Fine Stag to the VERY edge - they sure knew how to Haft a Knife in those days that's for sure!

 

[LongBlade]

I have a few more to add to this cool thread that I will call pandemic scores from the last few months .. but I would like to share them ... ...

Though this knife was from a London Retailer/Mfg I think it fits in this thread - and above I posted 2 others from London in this thread awhile back (Chas Clements and Jenner & Knewstub). Nonetheless this knife was stamped J Turrill 250 Regent St . Like Jenner & Knewstub, John Turrill was a high end maker of dressings cases, writing desks, leather travelling cases, work boxes and cutlery - especially pen and desk knives. He was located at 250 Regent St from the 1830s and moved in the 1850s to 52 New Bond St - thus this knife being marked Regent St dates somewhere between 1830-1850s. The handle is a smoky gray MOP (at least to my eye ) and I believe the shield is sterling silver - most likely a pen knife for the pocket or desk - flush joints and cut-outs for the nicks. The blades being a pen and a coping blade suggest perhaps it was used as a quill knife as well - the knife measures 3 & 3/16" closed. The backspring also has nice filework as shown in the photo below. For those interested I am also attaching the John Turrill handbill ad from the 1830s and the cutlery is noted on pg 2. (As an aside there are a few scratches/marks on the MOP and shield - towards the right end pin on mark side handle looks to be "D/7" scratched on handle - a saleman's sample? - unlikely but pure speculation and a guess by me suggests if it was a sample maybe it was scratched into the MOP handle in that time period (and inked salesman's samples most likely came years later)...

Few more coming in near future ...

Cheers - Lee

 

[danno50]

Very nice, Lee, nicely worked backspring! And as usual you have included some good factual information. Looking forward to the ones to come.

 

[Campbellclanman]

The workmanship on these Knives is what took a very good cutler to produce, talking to Stan he explained just how expensive Pearl Handles were- Oh Lordy not to make a mistake with such a delicate material such as Pearl, to this day we pick up these Knives and not often do the Blades let us down- over 100 years and still a crisp walk and talk from such extremely elegant Blades and smaller yet Joints, often overlooked is everything that goes into these awesome wee things.

Great Knife Lee.

 

[Jack Black]

The workmanship on these Knives is what took a very good cutler to produce, talking to Stan he explained just how expensive Pearl Handles were- Oh Lordy not to make a mistake with such a delicate material such as Pearl, to this day we pick up these Knives and not often do the Blades let us down- over 100 years and still a crisp walk and talk from such extremely elegant Blades and smaller yet Joints, often overlooked is everything that goes into these awesome wee things.

Great Knife Lee.

Well said Duncan Also worth mentioning that cutting and grinding pearl was extremely injurious to the health, even by the standards of a notoriously unhealthy and dangerous profession. Pearl-cutters suffered dizziness, blinding headaches, breathing problems, and had their lives cut short by their unhealthy profession. And none of them would ever been able to afford to purchase anything anywhere near as fancy as the beautiful knives we treasure today.

 

[David Schott]

I enjoy these knives so wanted to share one here that slipped into the year range here by one year :

It is a 1930 Ibberson made my the famous Edward Osbourne. Lobster pattern with quite a bit of wear and corrosion and damage but I love it just the same. I have one of Edward's of almost the same exact pattern from 1951 so its interesting to have by the same maker 21 years apart from the same company. I've always been a bit concerned the scissor's aren't original as they seem to have so much more corrosion but I dont know why someone would go through all that effort with a corroded scissor on a damaged knife so assume its just full carbon steel.

Here's the 1930:

Some pics with the 1951 edition here:
https://imgur.com/a/mjNLbPF

 

[Jack Black]

I enjoy these knives so wanted to share one here that slipped into the year range here by one year :

It is a 1930 Ibberson made my the famous Edward Osbourne. Lobster pattern with quite a bit of wear and corrosion and damage but I love it just the same. I have one of Edward's of almost the same exact pattern from 1951 so its interesting to have by the same maker 21 years apart from the same company. I've always been a bit concerned the scissor's aren't original as they seem to have so much more corrosion but I dont know why someone would go through all that effort with a corroded scissor on a damaged knife so assume its just full carbon steel.

Here's the 1930:

Some pics with the 1951 edition here:
https://imgur.com/a/mjNLbPF

Great to see those David I've only come across one Ted Osborne, a MOP Sleeveboard, which I gave to Stan Shaw

 

[David Schott]

Great to see those David I've only come across one Ted Osborne, a MOP Sleeveboard, which I gave to Stan Shaw

Interesting inside the brass near his initials you can see some parallel dents which I am almost sure is how they "adjusted" the tightness of the pivot pins with some type of tool. Its certainly an artifact of fabrication. They make tools to do this so you don't marr the more visible parts of the liners. I'm assuming this was to correct a pinch of some type on one of the blades

 

[Jack Black]

Interesting inside the brass near his initials you can see some parallel dents which I am almost sure is how they "adjusted" the tightness of the pivot pins with some type of tool. Its certainly an artifact of fabrication. They make tools to do this so you don't marr the more visible parts of the liners. I'm assuming this was to correct a pinch of some type on one of the blades

Interesting. Stan seems to do everything with various punches, he even puts the nail-nicks in like that. The Sheffield factory owners were never big on buying specialist tools, and the cutlers couldn't afford them. Ted came from a very poor background, and as a young feller, he was walking to work, when he spotted a shilling dropped on the ground. Rather than having fish and chips for tea, or a good breakfast, he spent it on a new file. Stan told me the story. I wish I had taken some photos of the knife I gave Stan, but I had only picked it up a couple of hours before, so I'm afraid these two are the only ones I have

 

[LongBlade]

David Schott and Jack Black - Lovely knives David and Jack - very cool maker history behind those and not easy finds...

David - I agree with you - I can't imagine either that somebody took the time to replace the scissors in that condition - it's possible the knife was gently cleaned in the past but the scissors perhaps were not - I would think the steel is the same... either way nice old knife with provenance on the liner ...

 

[Jack Black]

David Schott and Jack Black - Lovely knives David and Jack - very cool maker history behind those and not easy finds...

David - I agree with you - I can't imagine either that somebody took the time to replace the scissors in that condition - it's possible the knife was gently cleaned in the past but the scissors perhaps were not - I would think the steel is the same... either way nice old knife with provenance on the liner ...

Thank you my friend, I agree about the scissors

Here's a small Joseph Rodgers Sleeveboard Lobster, got a Sheffield-style nail-file underneath

 

[Campbellclanman]

Great Reading Gents! and Viewing!!!

 

[LongBlade]

Another beauty of a pen Jack ... personally I like the pen knives as much or not more than the big knives - The skill needed to create those small pen knives in grinding out those small blades and accordingly have them fit right with close tolerances are amazing - and usually the pen knives were a bit more adorned in terms of the handles - and finally the prices of the pen knives were generally more expensive (which has basically flip-flopped in the collectors market ) ... I am sure you know all this Jack - just sharing some thoughts for others interested or unaware...

Here's another more recent score of mine -

John Hinchliffe - 1841-1858 - Ivory Leg knife - 2 & 1/8" closed ... Thought the long pull on the blade was pretty cool as well as the back spring contoured to fit the shape of the leg - the details of the carving were cool (including the knee cap) - the tang stamp is partly hidden under the liner so the stamp reads "Beehive"/J Hinch/liffe... The handle was a solid piece of ivory carved to shape but also to make the well to fit the blade...

John Hinchliffe only had 10 employees and was well-known for fancy carved handled knives with the trademark stamp of a Beehive - I posted another John Hinchliffe knife a few pages back - a quill knife on pg 80 of this thread - also carved but a MOP handle .. the Hinchliffe cutlery was closed after his death in 1858 at the age of 48... he apparently was well-known at mid-1800 expositions for his elegant fancy carved handled knives... Originally I had slightly different dates when I posted the quill by Hinchliffe though the dates were overlapping in the mid-1800s - Tweedale has a more detailed historical overview from which this was summarized... sadly John Hinchliffe was buried in a pauper's grave..

First leg knife for me but patiently waited for a few years to find one that tripped my trigger ...

Cheers - Lee

 

[Jack Black]

Another beauty of a pen Jack ... personally I like the pen knives as much or not more than the big knives - The skill needed to create those small pen knives in grinding out those small blades and accordingly have them fit right with close tolerances are amazing - and usually the pen knives were a bit more adorned in terms of the handles - and finally the prices of the pen knives were generally more expensive (which has basically flip-flopped in the collectors market ) ... I am sure you know all this Jack - just sharing some thoughts for others interested or unaware...

Here's another more recent score of mine -

John Hinchliffe - 1841-1858 - Ivory Leg knife - 2 & 1/8" closed ... Thought the long pull on the blade was pretty cool as well as the back spring contoured to fit the shape of the leg - the details of the carving were cool (including the knee cap) - the tang stamp is partly hidden under the liner so the stamp reads "Beehive"/J Hinch/liffe... The handle was a solid piece of ivory carved to shape but also to make the well to fit the blade...

John Hinchliffe only had 10 employees and was well-known for fancy carved handled knives with the trademark stamp of a Beehive - I posted another John Hinchliffe knife a few pages back - a quill knife on pg 80 of this thread - also carved but a MOP handle .. the Hinchliffe cutlery was closed after his death in 1858 at the age of 48... he apparently was well-known at mid-1800 expositions for his elegant fancy carved handled knives... Originally I had slightly different dates when I posted the quill by Hinchliffe though the dates were overlapping in the mid-1800s - Tweedale has a more detailed historical overview from which this was summarized... sadly John Hinchliffe was buried in a pauper's grave..

First leg knife for me but patiently waited for a few years to find one that tripped my trigger ...

Cheers - Lee

Thank you very much Lee. What a fabulous piece of history there, congratulations There used to be a Leg Knife on display in one of the Sheffield museums, but I don't recall the maker. I'm just on my way to bed now, but I'll try to find out a pic tomorrow

 

[LongBlade]

Thanks very much Jack ...

 

[Jack Black]

The Leg Knife held by Sheffield Museums I mentioned is actually by Southern & Richardson, made in the early 20th century

Lots more Sheffield cutlery photos at the link given in this thread. I posted several other threads with my own photos, but a combination of the Photoshop fiasco and the last big BF software change has effectively destroyed them unfortunately

 

[LongBlade]

The Leg Knife held by Sheffield Museums I mentioned is actually by Southern & Richardson, made in the early 20th century

Lots more Sheffield cutlery photos at the link given in this thread. I posted several other threads with my own photos, but a combination of the Photoshop fiasco and the last big BF software change has effectively destroyed them unfortunately

Thanks for posting that Jack ... Indeed the same style and even blade .. I have seen the other photos you have posted from Sheffield and the museums - just fantastic - someday I will make it back over there and hopefully enjoy those knives with a closer view ...

 

[Jack Black]

Thanks for posting that Jack ... Indeed the same style and even blade .. I have seen the other photos you have posted from Sheffield and the museums - just fantastic - someday I will make it back over there and hopefully enjoy those knives with a closer view ...

A pleasure my friend, it's a shame there is only the one photo of the Southern & Richardson model for you to look at, but the similarity is incredible. As you know, with the Sheffield cutlers, again and again, we see the same patterns with different tang-stamps. Even today, a Clip blade or Lambsfoot produced by one firm is EXACTLY the same shape as that produced by another, and also exactly the same as blades produced a hundred years before, because they're actually using the same blade-stamping tools. Here's some of the ones owned by Wright's

I hope you can get over one day Lee, it would be a real pleasure to be able to show you around