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

[herder]

View attachment 2924275View attachment 2924276View attachment 2924277View attachment 2924278Here’s a Joseph Elliott, civil war era I believe. Got it from over the pond!

Great looking folding dirk. "R. Woods" carried an exceptionally fine knife.

 

[herder]

J.Bunger &Sons, Celebrated Cutlery. Split backspring wharncliffe whittler. 3 1⁄4 closed. Master blade flat ground. All three blades stamped “J.Bunger & Sons, Celebrated Cutlery” and “XX.” Thin, sharp blades, sunk joints.

Goins says 1875-1900. I asked Mick, who started this thread, if he knew anything about the company and he found the following: I think J Bunger & Sons was the London cutler (retailer) Jakob Bunger his premises was in Billiter Sq (City of London)

I found a post on Bladeforums about this knife by Charles Lamb (Chuko) who is a friend that passed away in 2018. I bought a few of his knives from his son a while back but I’m pleased to own another from his collection.

Beautiful knife Mike. The Wharncliffe Whittler has become one of my favorite patterns over the years. Such a graceful design.
Interesting to see the XX stamp long before Case used it.

 

[Campbellclanman]

That's a great example of a classic English pattern. Wonderful condition and beautiful stag on that old fellow.

Thank you Herder, I have a real soft spot for this knife- the more I handled this knife, the more I found it to be extremely well built, stag down to a millimeter at one point - just such a great knife

Another nice example of the standard pen knife pattern. Christopher Johnson offered many great knives well beyond WWII.

Again, thank you my friend, and again... when I received this knife, that Bone really grew on me, you don't often see bone like this on a Sheffield Pen Knife with such different characteristics - and with full blades it simply ticked the boxes for a nice small Sheffield.

A fine and quite old model. While a few catalogs exist for Sheffield cutlery companies such as Joseph Rodgers and Mappin that date back to the 1860s, very little paperwork (that I am aware of) older than the early 1880s exists for Wostenholm. That "fancy" Wostenholm blade stamp is not seen in early 1880s paperwork so we can date that stamp style to pre-1880s. My guess is that knife dates from the 1860s to 1870s. That same model was offered for decades beyond, but with a different "block" style blade stamp. Shown are a few Wostenholm pruners with the fist three from the left showing the later blade stamp. The far right example has the same older blade stamp as seen on Campbellclanman's wonderful example.

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Herder- Wow, what a line up of beauties! I could look at them all day!
Thank you for shedding some light on the dates!

 

[waynorth]

A fine and quite old model. While a few catalogs exist for Sheffield cutlery companies such as Joseph Rodgers and Mappin that date back to the 1860s, very little paperwork (that I am aware of) older than the early 1880s exists for Wostenholm. That "fancy" Wostenholm blade stamp is not seen in early 1880s paperwork so we can date that stamp style to pre-1880s. My guess is that knife dates from the 1860s to 1870s. That same model was offered for decades beyond, but with a different "block" style blade stamp. Shown are a few Wostenholm pruners with the fist three from the left showing the later blade stamp. The far right example has the same older blade stamp as seen on Campbellclanman's wonderful example.

View attachment 2929854

Nice collection of pruners, Neal!!!

 

[herder]

Thanks Duncan and Charlie.
Here is another old English pruner by Thomas Turner which has a fairly unusual bolster shape.

 

[Oldy]

Thanks Duncan and Charlie.
Here is another old English pruner by Thomas Turner which has a fairly unusual bolster shape.

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Those handles look like they may of split the tips of antlers and used the 2 sides on the same knife,I assume it's split in 2 and not notched out.

 

[Jack Black]

Thanks Duncan and Charlie.
Here is another old English pruner by Thomas Turner which has a fairly unusual bolster shape.

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Resurrected by Richards!

 

[Campbellclanman]

Thanks Duncan and Charlie.
Here is another old English pruner by Thomas Turner which has a fairly unusual bolster shape.

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Stunning Knife! Wow!

 

[Campbellclanman]

Resurrected by Richards!

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They did too Jack! Look at that!

 

[waynorth]

Thanks Duncan and Charlie.
Here is another old English pruner by Thomas Turner which has a fairly unusual bolster shape.

View attachment 2931405

Great Pruner!!!

 

[herder]

Thanks Oldy, Duncan, and Charlie.
I thought I had seen bolsters like those before but couldn't remember on what. Thanks Jack for the Richards picture.

 

[UnforchHabit]

I hope someone will be able to help me to identify this, which I take to be a cutler's mark:

It is on the mark side liner of this little 3¼” Ibberson Pen:

I guess it means the knife was made in 1934, if so it's nice to be able to date a Sheffield knife so accurately. But whose mark is the O? O is for Osbourne, but I would have thought those brothers would each have had their own marks. In fact I have been told that Ted Osbourne used ‘EO’, and his older brother Fred, more likely given the date, used ‘the cog’, which this is not. Any thoughts?

Another thing I find interesting about this knife is that it is an advertising knife (Bulloch Lade whisky) with what I am pretty sure are ivory handles. How common was it to use such a premium handle material on a knife that was presumably intended to be given away to clients of the distillery? Maybe only to very rich big spending Lords? Your thoughts welcome!

 

[Jack Black]

I hope someone will be able to help me to identify this, which I take to be a cutler's mark:

It is on the mark side liner of this little 3¼” Ibberson Pen:

I guess it means the knife was made in 1934, if so it's nice to be able to date a Sheffield knife so accurately. But whose mark is the O? O is for Osbourne, but I would have thought those brothers would each have had their own marks. In fact I have been told that Ted Osbourne used ‘EO’, and his older brother Fred, more likely given the date, used ‘the cog’, which this is not. Any thoughts?

Another thing I find interesting about this knife is that it is an advertising knife (Bulloch Lade whisky) with what I am pretty sure are ivory handles. How common was it to use such a premium handle material on a knife that was presumably intended to be given away to clients of the distillery? Maybe only to very rich big spending Lords? Your thoughts welcome!

You're well-informed about that mark sir (I certainly can't offer more). I gave Stan Shaw one of Ted's knives, his first Penknife. Certainly very uncommon to have ivory on an advertising knife, perhaps this was intended for the firm's directors, or high-end clients, as you suggest. Nice find

 

[Trubetzkoy]

Find the odd one out:

 

[Campbellclanman]

American made right hand side?

 

[Trubetzkoy]

American made right hand side?

Almost -- German-made. I've just shared this knife here, but I thought it interesting to show it in this thread too given the "English Steel" stamp, which is a testimony to the reputation of Sheffield knives back in the day, to the point that other reputable knifemaking hubs relied on it to sell their products in the US. Below is a pic with a piece I've shown in this thread before:

 

[Campbellclanman]

Ahhh, very cool, I figured it was the English Steel stamp hinting to being made away from Sheffield, as you wouldn't see that on a Sheffield Knife.
Interesting! Thank you!