Friday, March 28, 2014

Vanished Makes: George Hancock & Sons, Sheffield, England



From an old butter knife, likely from the 1950's.  The blade says that the firm was established in 1851, but I can't find any information on them, other than a few other people advertising examples of their wares for sale.  Amazing that a century-old cutlery firm can just vanish like this.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The company was est in 1851 and stopped operations in 1909.

The Duke said...

The knife really doesn't look old enough to have been made before 1909. The handle is some kind of plastic. I have no experience in telling celluloid from other plastics, but I understand it tends to break down over time, and this handle is perfect. So, I'm thinking that the firm soldiered on beyond 1909.

Stefan said...

I'm a volunteer curator with the Hawley Tool collection at Sheffield's (UK) Kelham Island Industrial Museum. We are currently working on a project called 'Name on a Knife Blade' (https://www.hawleysheffieldknives.com/index.php) attempting to provide information on the knife makers of Sheffield. We have examples of knives from around 2000 different manufacturers and we know of manufacturers for which we have no items in he collection. George Hancock and Sons is one of those. He is part of our database under George Hancock. But information is scant. Would you allow us to use the photographs of the knife to add to our on line database? Hoping this comment on such an old thread finds you. Stefan

Mister G said...

Absolutely! Please do. Apologies for not being able to give you a higher resolution image.

Unknown said...

I have a stag handle ornate silver mounts at base of blade and end of handle. The blade has Geo Hancock (Cons) Cutlers Sheffield Another place on the blade reads Hand Forged Warranted Shear Steel. Any information would be welcome.

Stefan said...

https://hawleysheffieldknives.com/index.php?val=hA&kel=1453

Anonymous said...

Have a full wooden boxed set with knife sharpener and big I mean 12 inch blade and fork with extra bit all perfectly engraved wanted to know more about the set