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Product Details
AN INTERESTING COLLECTION OF ACID STENCILS AND ARTWORK FROM WILLIAM GREGORY & SONS KNIFEMAKERS, SHEFFIELD,
pre and post war designs including artwork from the 'Californian Bowie Knife' the 'Celebrated Sheffield Bowie', the 'Kentucky Skinner' together with various trademark designs and address styles, the stencils including some commemorative types including 'Admiral Lord Nelson', 'The Bowie Knife Boys, Company 'C' Cass County 1st Georgia Infantry', 'The Siege of The Alamo', 'Union Pacific Railway', 'General Custer' and 'Rorkes Drift' amongst others including a few National Socialist and K.K.K.K. designs, all in a display album
Provenance: William Gregory was born at Calver in Derbyshire in about 1818. A self made man, Gregory had learned the art of forging and established his own business in 1843. He appears in a Sheffield directory in 1865 as a maker of table and butchers' knives in Peel Street, Broomhill. He died on 3 May 1878, aged 60, at his home in Broomhill and was buried in an unconsecrated grave in the General Cemetery. By then his business, now located at Westend Works in Bolsover Street, Brookhill, had established a good reputation.
William's sons, Samuel, William, Henry, and John Robinson all joined the family firm. Samuel, who had been born in Sheffield in about 1850 and educated privately, became the senior partner. After 1880, Samuel was partnered by George Blagden Hawksworth (1858-1898). The latter was the son of a Sheffield bank manager, who had worked for Steer & Webster. Samuel was the traveller, regularly visiting the U.S to ply his wares whilst Hawksworth managed the factory, now at Otto Works in Howard/Arundel Street. In 1881, the workforce numbered 40 men, two boys, and four girls. In 1885, Samuel Gregory and George Hawksworth became the sole owners of the business. By the mid-1890s, the workforce had swollen to upwards of 100 employees. Gregory's was well known for its butchers', grocers' and farmers' knives and also sold table cutlery and pocket knives and tools. For the Victorian household, it also made ‘Incorrodible' butter and cheese knives and ‘Spanish Silver' butter knives. These goods were also exported to Australia, Canada and the USA (where the firm had a resident agent).
Sadly, George Blagden Hawksworth died aged only 39, on 9 February 1898 and was buried in Ecclesall. He left £1,805. John Robinson Gregory, who suffered from depression, committed suicide by hanging himself from a bedpost at his home, The Bungalow, Booth's Lane, Hathersage, on 17 May 1904. He was aged about 51. Samuel Gregory himself died on 15 October 1909, aged 59. He was buried in the General Cemetery. The business was taken over by John Petty & Sons. Samuel's son, Samuel Alfred, was made the senior partner in the renamed Gregory Bros. However, William Gregory & Sons was still listed at Garden Street in Kelly's Directory of the Engineering, Hardware & Metal Trades, 1934, the same location as John Petty & Sons. It is known that the same firm also incorporated Joseph Mills of Scotland Street. John Petty & Sons continued in business until 1986, specialising in hand forged knives. On its closure, the Perth Works at Golden Street was bought by property developers and immediately demolished
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Estimate £50-100