Help narrowing down a date
I have narrowed the age of my sheffield razor I am restoring down to between 1880 and 1900. I have two questions that could possibly narrow it down some more. It has "Sheffield, England" stamped on the tang and I am under the impression that after 1890/1891 companies HAD to mark with the country of origin but my question is were any companies doing this before they had to? In other words if there is no country of origin stamped on the tang we are reasonably sure it was prior to 1890/1891 but if it is stamped with the country of origin can we be sure it was after this time frame.
The he reason I ask is because I found a similar razor that a collector was selling and it was stamped "Sheffield, England" but the box that the set came in evidently was stamped 1880's. So I was/am a bit confused.