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Very Used Antique English Solid Silver Waist and Ivory Handle Medium Carving Knife circa 1905/06

13 October 2003   

 

Very Used Antique English Solid Silver Waist and Ivory Handle Medium Carving Knife circa 1905/06

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Hallmarks - Lion passant (sterling), Crown (Sheffield), Date letter n (1905) and Maker's mark M W (Mappin and Webb), Brand name "Trustworthy."

When you say, 'Silver?' "Sterling is the American and British standard for silver, used to produce most elaborate and costly pieces. The sterling standard is 925 parts of silver to 75 parts copper in every 1000 parts sterling silver."

Scrounging around a mate's cutlery draw I found three items with a hallmark, apparently, his great Nan, used to work as a chamber maid, somewhere. After looking them up I was surprised to find out how old they are and this is the third item to be sold...

This is had to wrench away, for they were still using it. I tried it on some cheese last night, and it cuts beautifully, for they sharpen it still regularly. This isn't a knife for languishing about in a collector's draw, being nearly one hundred years old, it should still be used by it's new owners to cut the Sunday roast as it was once in 1905 - ninty seven years ago!

It was made is Sheffield, 84 miles from Telford. At that time you'd have gone through Stafford and Chesterfield to get there. Most likely it was sold out of a shop in Shrewsbury (14 miles) or Ironbridge (5 miles). Maybe a descendant of the Darby family who built the first span iron bridge in 1781 thereby starting the industrial revolution. Or, the owners or bankers of Jackfield Tile Factory, The Broseley Clay Pipe Works or the Coalport China Works all very busy at the time. But over the coming decades the Ironbridge area fell on bad times.

The blade is steel I'd guess, it's only the little waist band on the ivory handle that is solid sterling silver, and carries the hallmark and maker's mark which are well defined and deep. The blade is pitted, but very, very sharp. Who's to know how many times this has been sharpened over its career, remember, if I hadn't pulled it from my mate's hand it would be cutting roast beef this weekend. The  bone handle is pinned to stop it twisting.

The maker's brand name Trustworthy surely suits this knife. I'm sure there's another 100 years of cutting life in this blade. This is a well made instrument.

Mappin and Webb still carry their Royal Warrants to HM The Queen and are now in Birmingham and London as well as Sheffieldwhere this was made.

Much of the blade has been worn away by repeated sharpening over ninty seven years. The blade is pitted, but could be cleaned. The ivory handle has a small, very, very small chink on one of its corners near the blade, no bigger than a small pin head.

Blade 6 1/2" or 158mm handle 4 5/16" or 109mm


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