Women In Cutlery
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 2:54 am
Throughout history, women have been involved with the production and use of cutlery.
In England, women played an integral role in the cutlery industry
The late 18th century list of manufacturers of Pen & Pocket knives shows: Mary Krikby of Brinkworth’s Orchard, a Hannah Patten and son of Silver street, Widow Ratcliff of Paradise Square, Hannah Marsh of Park, Widow Spencer of Westbar-green, and Widow Smith of Broad-lane End, Widow Green of Worral, Widow Ibbotson of Caldwell, Widow Jones and Sons of Greenhill,
18th century manufacturers of Razors shows a Widow Rowland of Black-lane
18th Century Lancets and Phlemes: Mary Hallam of Norfolk-street
The 17th century list of London Cutlers has Isabel Robinson 1645 and Elizabeth Robinson 1650, Anne Gardner 1684, Bridget Sergeant 1664, Elizabeth Kettlebuter 1664 (what a great name!)
Salisbury cutlers list Jane Botly 1838 and Jane Price 1838-39,
If you have a chance to read Tweedale’s Directory of Cutlery Manufacturers 1740-2013, a striking feature is how many woman maintained cutlery firms. There are many example, such as Mary Heathcote who in 1856 sold “All kinds of Fancy Pen and Pocket Cutlery”, or Mary Milner listed between 1833-45 as a pen knife manufacturer in Balm Green who kept alive her deceased husbands business in order for her sons to eventually inherit the trade in the late 1840s. Or there was Luisa Barnes who in 1841 was listed as a “30 year old cutler” and who in 1851 employed 15 men and 4 boys.
Some cutlery jobs were the preserves of woman, such as buffing (polishing). In 1893 at Dixon’s Cornish Place Works, a silver-plate trade, 296 women were employed, not far shy of the 308 men an 66 boys employed. In Herbert Horsley’s “back to the Grindstone” he scribes the buffer lass as such “A rare and colorful breed: jolly lasses, earthy characters invariably full of life but always lovable. If they earned good money it was because they deserved it, for they were both skillful and very hardworking.” He pictures Mary Buckingham who at her retirement in 1989 at the age of 73 had spent 58 years working in the cutlery trade.
Interestingly, a Mrs. Buckingham worked for the American Shear & Knife Co. (1853-1914) of Hotchkissville, CT for 26 years. In a 1938 interview she says “Women in the knife shops? Oh, yes, there was about ten of ’em over in Hotchkissville. We used to clean, and pack the knives, little jobs like that……The girls didn’t get much money. Paid by the month. Some of them get about twenty five cents a day. I remember the first month I worked I made eight dollars and fifteen cents. I gave it to my mother and she gave me a quarter to buy candy with and I had to make it last until the next payday, too.”
Other women have been involved in a symbolic way, take for example the passing in 1909 of Karl Elsener’s mother, Victoria Elsener-Ott. Karl Elsener adopted her name in her memory as his trademark, VICTORIA, and upon use of stainless steel by this firm, we get the name VICTORINOX. In other types, such as the picture handled celluloid variety of knives, many un-named women graced the handles, likely a strong reason for the success of this type of knife.
More recently, Jennie Moore in 2012 became the first woman in the U.S. to be named the president of a major knife company, Queen Cutlery of Titusville, PA, the oldest operating knife factory in America. Then of course there is the ever impressive work of Charlotte Goins who along with her husband John, produced Goins’ Encyclopedia of Cutlery Markings.
If you have any information or knives made by, for, collected by, inspired by or otherwise relating to women in cutlery please post them here.
In England, women played an integral role in the cutlery industry
The late 18th century list of manufacturers of Pen & Pocket knives shows: Mary Krikby of Brinkworth’s Orchard, a Hannah Patten and son of Silver street, Widow Ratcliff of Paradise Square, Hannah Marsh of Park, Widow Spencer of Westbar-green, and Widow Smith of Broad-lane End, Widow Green of Worral, Widow Ibbotson of Caldwell, Widow Jones and Sons of Greenhill,
18th century manufacturers of Razors shows a Widow Rowland of Black-lane
18th Century Lancets and Phlemes: Mary Hallam of Norfolk-street
The 17th century list of London Cutlers has Isabel Robinson 1645 and Elizabeth Robinson 1650, Anne Gardner 1684, Bridget Sergeant 1664, Elizabeth Kettlebuter 1664 (what a great name!)
Salisbury cutlers list Jane Botly 1838 and Jane Price 1838-39,
If you have a chance to read Tweedale’s Directory of Cutlery Manufacturers 1740-2013, a striking feature is how many woman maintained cutlery firms. There are many example, such as Mary Heathcote who in 1856 sold “All kinds of Fancy Pen and Pocket Cutlery”, or Mary Milner listed between 1833-45 as a pen knife manufacturer in Balm Green who kept alive her deceased husbands business in order for her sons to eventually inherit the trade in the late 1840s. Or there was Luisa Barnes who in 1841 was listed as a “30 year old cutler” and who in 1851 employed 15 men and 4 boys.
Some cutlery jobs were the preserves of woman, such as buffing (polishing). In 1893 at Dixon’s Cornish Place Works, a silver-plate trade, 296 women were employed, not far shy of the 308 men an 66 boys employed. In Herbert Horsley’s “back to the Grindstone” he scribes the buffer lass as such “A rare and colorful breed: jolly lasses, earthy characters invariably full of life but always lovable. If they earned good money it was because they deserved it, for they were both skillful and very hardworking.” He pictures Mary Buckingham who at her retirement in 1989 at the age of 73 had spent 58 years working in the cutlery trade.
Interestingly, a Mrs. Buckingham worked for the American Shear & Knife Co. (1853-1914) of Hotchkissville, CT for 26 years. In a 1938 interview she says “Women in the knife shops? Oh, yes, there was about ten of ’em over in Hotchkissville. We used to clean, and pack the knives, little jobs like that……The girls didn’t get much money. Paid by the month. Some of them get about twenty five cents a day. I remember the first month I worked I made eight dollars and fifteen cents. I gave it to my mother and she gave me a quarter to buy candy with and I had to make it last until the next payday, too.”
Other women have been involved in a symbolic way, take for example the passing in 1909 of Karl Elsener’s mother, Victoria Elsener-Ott. Karl Elsener adopted her name in her memory as his trademark, VICTORIA, and upon use of stainless steel by this firm, we get the name VICTORINOX. In other types, such as the picture handled celluloid variety of knives, many un-named women graced the handles, likely a strong reason for the success of this type of knife.
More recently, Jennie Moore in 2012 became the first woman in the U.S. to be named the president of a major knife company, Queen Cutlery of Titusville, PA, the oldest operating knife factory in America. Then of course there is the ever impressive work of Charlotte Goins who along with her husband John, produced Goins’ Encyclopedia of Cutlery Markings.
If you have any information or knives made by, for, collected by, inspired by or otherwise relating to women in cutlery please post them here.
