Continental Cutlery Co

Fantastic thread and some Continental knives I had no idea existed.

I'm don't know if this thread is meant to be limited to the older, higher quality English knives, but Gevonovich cited this letter from Robeson, so I thought I'd post it for all to see and a couple of Robeson made knives.

The letter indicates that Robeson made and marketed the knives.

I cannot find a listing of the owners or officers of Clark Brothers Cutlery, but interestingly, the author of the Robeson letter is "F.H.C." and I read the last name in his signature as "Clark".

Who knows what that might mean?

Personally, I have often thought that John Goins got it wrong and there was no actual connection between Continental/Sheffield and Continental, New York. That is best left to a true historian, which I am not.

 
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I never really collected Robeson made Continental knives, but did acquire a couple of representative examples, an ebony handled 3 5/8" two blade equal end jack and a jigged bone handled 4 1/4" 037 cigar jack, which had been buffed up before I got it.

Continental, New York marked five inch coke bottle jacks appear with some regularity on Ebay. Most have ebony handles, some have a hard rubber handle. Not sure I've ever seen one with bone handles.

Every Continental Cutlery Co. New York knife I have ever seen appeared, to me, to be a Robeson product.



 
CNoyes said:
Fantastic thread and some Continental knives I had no idea existed.

I'm don't know if this thread is meant to be limited to the older, higher quality English knives, but Gevonovich cited this letter from Robeson, so I thought I'd post it for all to see and a couple of Robeson made knives.

The letter indicates that Robeson made and marketed the knives.

I cannot find a listing of the owners or officers of Clark Brothers Cutlery, but interestingly, the author of the Robeson letter is "F.H.C." and I read the last name in his signature as "Clark".

Who knows what that might mean?

Personally, I have often thought that John Goins got it wrong and there was no actual connection between Continental/Sheffield and Continental, New York. That is best left to a true historian, which I am not.

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Great piece of old paperwork, and every bit like this helps to complete a puzzle.
There is a definite link with "Continental" of Sheffield and "Continental" of the United States with Alfred Field as the common denominator.
Alfred Field was an English merchant who had branch locations around the world which included businesses in England, Germany, Australia, Cuba, Canada, and two branches in New York.
So the Continental name that Field acquired in 1888 was probably used worldwide. Alfred Field used the "Continental Cutlery Co." brand from 1888 to at least 1901 as shown in documentation, and had discontinued using that name by 1910. Robeson probably bought or just took over the Continental name sometime around 1910 (or a few years earlier) up until around 1913, and certainly prior to this Robeson letter dated to 1914. Very interesting to see how cutlery names and trade marks changed hands frequently in the 1800s and early 1900s.
 
CNoyes said:
I never really collected Robeson made Continental knives, but did acquire a couple of representative examples, an ebony handled 3 5/8" two blade equal end jack and a jigged bone handled 4 1/4" 037 cigar jack, which had been buffed up before I got it.

Continental, New York marked five inch coke bottle jacks appear with some regularity on Ebay. Most have ebony handles, some have a hard rubber handle. Not sure I've ever seen one with bone handles.

Every Continental Cutlery Co. New York knife I have ever seen appeared, to me, to be a Robeson product.



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Thank you for your fine contribution to the discovery, Charlie !! The paperwork is priceless and the knives grand. Thank you very much !!

herder said:
Great piece of old paperwork, and every bit like this helps to complete a puzzle.
There is a definite link with "Continental" of Sheffield and "Continental" of the United States with Alfred Field as the common denominator.
Alfred Field was an English merchant who had branch locations around the world which included businesses in England, Germany, Australia, Cuba, Canada, and two branches in New York.
So the Continental name that Field acquired in 1888 was probably used worldwide. Alfred Field used the "Continental Cutlery Co." brand from 1888 to at least 1901 as shown in documentation, and had discontinued using that name by 1910. Robeson probably bought or just took over the Continental name sometime around 1910 (or a few years earlier) up until around 1913, and certainly prior to this Robeson letter dated to 1914. Very interesting to see how cutlery names and trade marks changed hands frequently in the 1800s and early 1900s.
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It is a puzzle isn't it and great fun to piece together with everyone's contributions and insight. Again, I can't thank you enough Herder !!

Keep the puzzle pieces coming :D:thumbsup:
 
My only Continental is the one on the far left. It has the same tang stamp as Kevin's knives.

7iz1nh8.jpg


- Stuart
 
Gevonovich Gevonovich
Wow did I find some good reading over the weekend, I found Congressional records of the debates leading up to the cutlery and gun tariffs of 1890 (the McKinley tariffs) and it really had descriptive insight from the importer's point of view... specifically from two men; A.H. Saxton from Alfred Field & Co representing the Sheffield based imported knives and George W Korn who at the time was a successful importer, specializing in the German Solingen knives. Long story short, these two guys were fighting Congress for their livelihood to maintain the tariff rate at the time, which was 50% ad valorem in the late 1880's, in lieu of the proposed increase in tariff's which basically focused on attacking their most successful import products which were inexpensively made knives that they could import and sell with great profit margins in the U.S.

Part way down pg. 1669 (below) confirms exactly what H herder said earlier... Mr Saxton mentions that when they get a knife order for $10,000 they would get knives from 50 or 60 or 70 knife manufacturer's throughout England/Europe and they would basically grade all of the knives that come in based on quality. The top grade quality knives they put their own name on and the next grade they branded as Continental Cutlery Co. So I guess that explains why the "nice" Continental Cutlery coke bottle knife I have just feels awesome in hand :)

In the late 1800's, Alfred Field & Co was the biggest importer to the U.S. relying on the two pools of Sheffield, England and Solingen, Germany for most of their products distributed here. I did not realize that many of the American knife "manufacturer's" really started out as sellers of these knives and I'm sure most of you knew this but it was news to me that these American companies would take the quality import knives, have them stamped with their own brand names and distributed them to hardware merchants all around the country in an effort to establish themselves to the public as top notch knife manufacturers. In the meantime they would try to mimic the quality of the imported brand with their own manufacturing with the ultimate hope they could eventually stop using the imported knives altogether and sell their in-house manufactured brands. Some were successful, some definitely were not and those failed manufacturers were exposed once the tariffs kicked in and the import knives they were selling dried up. I have a hunch a lot of knife "manufacturer's" went out of business around the turn of the century. o_O

So with that said, I noticed in Goins that Robeson Cutlery was established in 1893 as an import and jobbing firm so it got me thinking about Mr Noyes letter posted earlier... I wonder if instead of Robeson manufacturing knives branded as Continental Cutlery, if they actually used the Continental Cutlery brand to "bolster" ;) their own name and developed some of their knives based on them? I'm sure it is a chicken vs. egg debate but it seems to make more sense since the Continental brand was around well before Robeson. They may have eventually purchased the rights to the name... I did a trademark search and could not find anything online regarding the history of the Continental Cutlery "brand".

Enjoy the reading below, it's very interesting. If you want to explore more, go into the Google Book search engine and type in "saxton" "knife" "tariff" and you will find hours of reading material regarding the tariffs of 1890.

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veitsi_poika said:
Gevonovich Gevonovich
Wow did I find some good reading over the weekend, I found Congressional records of the debates leading up to the cutlery and gun tariffs of 1890 (the McKinley tariffs) and it really had descriptive insight from the importer's point of view... specifically from two men; A.H. Saxton from Alfred Field & Co representing the Sheffield based imported knives and George W Korn who at the time was a successful importer, specializing in the German Solingen knives. Long story short, these two guys were fighting Congress for their livelihood to maintain the tariff rate at the time, which was 50% ad valorem in the late 1880's, in lieu of the proposed increase in tariff's which basically focused on attacking their most successful import products which were inexpensively made knives that they could import and sell with great profit margins in the U.S.

Part way down pg. 1669 (below) confirms exactly what H herder said earlier... Mr Saxton mentions that when they get a knife order for $10,000 they would get knives from 50 or 60 or 70 knife manufacturer's throughout England/Europe and they would basically grade all of the knives that come in based on quality. The top grade quality knives they put their own name on and the next grade they branded as Continental Cutlery Co. So I guess that explains why the "nice" Continental Cutlery coke bottle knife I have just feels awesome in hand :)

In the late 1800's, Alfred Field & Co was the biggest importer to the U.S. relying on the two pools of Sheffield, England and Solingen, Germany for most of their products distributed here. I did not realize that many of the American knife "manufacturer's" really started out as sellers of these knives and I'm sure most of you knew this but it was news to me that these American companies would take the quality import knives, have them stamped with their own brand names and distributed them to hardware merchants all around the country in an effort to establish themselves to the public as top notch knife manufacturers. In the meantime they would try to mimic the quality of the imported brand with their own manufacturing with the ultimate hope they could eventually stop using the imported knives altogether and sell their in-house manufactured brands. Some were successful, some definitely were not and those failed manufacturers were exposed once the tariffs kicked in and the import knives they were selling dried up. I have a hunch a lot of knife "manufacturer's" went out of business around the turn of the century. o_O

So with that said, I noticed in Goins that Robeson Cutlery was established in 1893 as an import and jobbing firm so it got me thinking about Mr Noyes letter posted earlier... I wonder if instead of Robeson manufacturing knives branded as Continental Cutlery, if they actually used the Continental Cutlery brand to "bolster" ;) their own name and developed some of their knives based on them? I'm sure it is a chicken vs. egg debate but it seems to make more sense since the Continental brand was around well before Robeson. They may have eventually purchased the rights to the name... I did a trademark search and could not find anything online regarding the history of the Continental Cutlery "brand".

Enjoy the reading below, it's very interesting. If you want to explore more, go into the Google Book search engine and type in "saxton" "knife" "tariff" and you will find hours of reading material regarding the tariffs of 1890.

View attachment 932074
View attachment 932086
View attachment 932087
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View attachment 932090
Click to expand...
The proverbial smoking gun :eek: Fantastic research !!! I'm still reading Kevin:D...
 
veitsi_poika said:
Gevonovich Gevonovich
Wow did I find some good reading over the weekend, I found Congressional records of the debates leading up to the cutlery and gun tariffs of 1890 (the McKinley tariffs) and it really had descriptive insight from the importer's point of view... specifically from two men; A.H. Saxton from Alfred Field & Co representing the Sheffield based imported knives and George W Korn who at the time was a successful importer, specializing in the German Solingen knives. Long story short, these two guys were fighting Congress for their livelihood to maintain the tariff rate at the time, which was 50% ad valorem in the late 1880's, in lieu of the proposed increase in tariff's which basically focused on attacking their most successful import products which were inexpensively made knives that they could import and sell with great profit margins in the U.S.

Part way down pg. 1669 (below) confirms exactly what H herder said earlier... Mr Saxton mentions that when they get a knife order for $10,000 they would get knives from 50 or 60 or 70 knife manufacturer's throughout England/Europe and they would basically grade all of the knives that come in based on quality. The top grade quality knives they put their own name on and the next grade they branded as Continental Cutlery Co. So I guess that explains why the "nice" Continental Cutlery coke bottle knife I have just feels awesome in hand :)

In the late 1800's, Alfred Field & Co was the biggest importer to the U.S. relying on the two pools of Sheffield, England and Solingen, Germany for most of their products distributed here. I did not realize that many of the American knife "manufacturer's" really started out as sellers of these knives and I'm sure most of you knew this but it was news to me that these American companies would take the quality import knives, have them stamped with their own brand names and distributed them to hardware merchants all around the country in an effort to establish themselves to the public as top notch knife manufacturers. In the meantime they would try to mimic the quality of the imported brand with their own manufacturing with the ultimate hope they could eventually stop using the imported knives altogether and sell their in-house manufactured brands. Some were successful, some definitely were not and those failed manufacturers were exposed once the tariffs kicked in and the import knives they were selling dried up. I have a hunch a lot of knife "manufacturer's" went out of business around the turn of the century. o_O

So with that said, I noticed in Goins that Robeson Cutlery was established in 1893 as an import and jobbing firm so it got me thinking about Mr Noyes letter posted earlier... I wonder if instead of Robeson manufacturing knives branded as Continental Cutlery, if they actually used the Continental Cutlery brand to "bolster" ;) their own name and developed some of their knives based on them? I'm sure it is a chicken vs. egg debate but it seems to make more sense since the Continental brand was around well before Robeson. They may have eventually purchased the rights to the name... I did a trademark search and could not find anything online regarding the history of the Continental Cutlery "brand".

Enjoy the reading below, it's very interesting. If you want to explore more, go into the Google Book search engine and type in "saxton" "knife" "tariff" and you will find hours of reading material regarding the tariffs of 1890.

View attachment 932074
View attachment 932086
View attachment 932087
View attachment 932088
View attachment 932089
View attachment 932090
Click to expand...

Good digging V.P. There is a great deal of information on old knives buried in the internet if one has the drive and patience to sort it out.
There was also an interesting article on Alfred Field in "Knife Magazine" this past year.
 
Here is a little (3 inch) Continental gunstock jack I rediscovered (forgot I had) going through a few old knives I had set aside for further research and had not got around too_O Thanks for all the good research and great knives all!

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The gunstock jack is pretty much identical to Robeson's of the same pattern.
 
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