- Joined
- Dec 19, 2006
- Messages
- 8,210
I've posted this before in either this thread or another here on the Traditional these were some different pictures I've found. Now that I've got a better camera, (thanks Mossyhorn) I'll take some better pics.
This was a knife I bought at one of the first estate sales I'd ever been too. The gentleman who'd passed away collected some knives and it was me and another guy bidding on the 30 or so knives that went up. It was a great first sale as the guy bidding against me was completely fair and if he saw I was interested he backed off and I did the same so we both would up with an equal share of the knives and we both got for the most part what we each wanted.
The one knife I missed, in fact we both missed was this little pearl Sleeveboard Lobster pattern that came with a little leather purse. It was part of a box lot that was filled stuff from a woman's vanity table. The bidding got past $12 and i let it go, (my wife was already mad that I had bought over a dozen knives and explaining why I needed one more wasn't goin' to help my case much. so I lost the lot.
Later that evening as we were gettin' ready to settle up I ran into the woman and i asked her if she'd be willin' to part with the knife and she immediately resonded by pullin' it from the box and asked me for $3 which I gladly handed over. she even found the leather purse that went with it. That was back in the 80s, I hung onto that knife not knowing or finding any other info about the knife except a name which was stamped into the blade.
Here's some pics, now at this point in the story I knew nothing other than the name in the blade JSZIRAKI.
Part of what helped me date it was the little SAK style nickel silver tweezers or what I thought was a cocaine spoon which would have put the knife around the 1800s but that was just a educated guess by me which turned out to be completely wrong. Around the early 90s I was at a local show and I ran into a guy who had a table full of old knives all in great shape. During the conversation I had shown him the knife and he corrected me and gave me my first solid piece of evidence. What I thought was a coke spoon turned out to be an ear pick used to scoop out ear wax and debris from one's ears, long before the invention of the Q-tip this was the acceptable method, an ear pick used to scoop out the nasty stuff.
It was most likely a manicure tool made for an upper crust Victorian woman.but other than that info there was nothin' else for another 18 years. Now 18 or so years later the internet is in full bloom, social media put me in contact with more resources and people who had more knowledge than I had on the subject and a member here at BFC saw the name and hooked me up with links and history about the maker. ,(I love the internet ).
Well after owning the knife that I bought for $3 around 30 or so years ago turns out that J (Josev) Sziraki was the intergral player if not the father of the central European Cutlery industry going back to the early to mid 18th century. This guy was a god, the Tony Bose of his day and to make things even better he was Hungarian, he was one of my people.
I'm still learning about this knife, here it is I've owned it for 30 years and i feel I'm barely scratchin' the surface. I got a big break whe a member here at BFC sent me a PM with a couple of relevant links, Thanks, I'll post your name when I go back and check my PMs to see who you were , thanks again.
Very nice, Ted! I enjoyed the photos and background about the knife.
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