This is a
very unique multiblade folder from Joseph Haywood & Co Sheffield
England. featuring a lockback main spare point blade folding on one end while a
disgorger and fish-shell scraper together with a hook fold onto the opposite
end. A hand forge corkscrew, a punch with a diamond section and a secondary
blade are nestled into a recces on the back of the knife. Pull out tweezers,
toothpick and scissors (missing spring) are set into the handles.
Main blade,
disgorger and hook are front stamped with the maker’s mark, main blade is also
back stamped with the * Geo. W. Hinhcliffe* trade mark
The
secondary blade is front stamped with the maker’s mark and back stamped with
the * Geo. W. Hinchcliffe* trade mark
The knife
features wonderful checkered horn handles over steel liners. The front scale
with a rectangular plaque for owner’s name.
Large and
heavy knife: length is nearly 16 cm closed and 22,6 cm when main blade is out
Horn
handles well-matched front and back; without cracks on front or back. . Blades/tools
are tight and open and close properly, main blade with some up and down and
side by side play in the locked open position Well-made old knife.
The knife
has not been cleaned, buffed or otherwise modified
Joseph Haywood was born in Sheffield on 14 February 1823, the son of
Joseph, a merchant, and his wife, Sarah. Joseph Haywood Jun. was
apprenticed to Robert Sorby & Co, merchant and edge tool manufacturer,
Carver Street. In the Census (1841), he was enumerated as a merchant’s
clerk living in Eyre Street with Sarah Haywood (his widowed mother).
Joseph’s uncle was George Willis Hinchliffe. Aged 21, Joseph became the
‘successor’ to Hinchliffe. The latter’s business had become insolvent by 1850,
but it appears that Haywood’s mother had acquired the assets and the
mark. Certainly, Haywood owned the name ‘Geo. W. Hinchliffe’. Haywood was first listed in a directory in 1845 as a merchant and steel,
file, edge-tool, saw, and cutlery manufacturer in Victoria Street. The
business moved to Livingstone Works, Holly Street, and then to Garden Street,
from where a silver mark was registered in 1880. The workshops were soon
moved to Glamorgan Works, Little Pond Street. Haywood traded as a
‘general merchant’ in cutlery, partly through a London office at No. 56 Holborn
Viaduct. Pocket, sportsman’s, and budding knives were staple lines,
though the firm also made table cutlery and plated dessert ware. It
registered another silver mark in Sheffield in 1894. Haywood’s corporate
mark (besides ‘HINCHLIFFE’) was a kettle, which had been granted in 1860.
Haywood was once described as ‘a successful manufacturer and splendid man of
business. The qualities which make up the latter he largely inherited
from his mother, who in his early career was in the habit of attending to the
works while he was travelling for orders’ (Sheffield Independent, 2 June
1888). By 1881, according to the Census, he employed 165 workers (101
men, 41 women, and 23 boys). Joseph Haywood, Oakholme Road, died on 31
May 1888, aged 65. He was interred in the General Cemetery, leaving
£26,843. Joseph’s son, Arthur Haywood (1855-1936), took
over the business. Within only two years he was bankrupt. At a
hearing at Preston bankruptcy court, he denied living beyond his means by
spending money on a party trip to the Lake District and on champagne and wines,
‘believing he had a considerable interest under his father’s will’ (Sheffield
Independent, 22 March 1890). He was living on his own means by the 1890s
and had retired completely. In 1902, the firm’s marks, goodwill, and
stock of electro-plate and premium sportsman’s knives were offered for sale
(Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 18, 19 March 1902). The goodwill and marks of
the business at Glamorgan Works, Pond Street, were sold for £660. The
purchasers were Needham, Veall & Tyzack and Thomas Turner & Co, who
purchased them co-jointly. The agreement was that Turner’s would continue
the pocket-knife department; Needham, Veall would carry on the table, razor, scissors,
and electro-plate department. Both firms would have the right to strike
the ‘kettle’ on their respective goods. In the Census (1911), Arthur was
living in Crookes as a ‘late cutlery manufacturer: now out of’. He died
in Barlow Moor Road, Crookes, on 9 October 1936. He left £98 to his
widow, Alberta