Thread: ID and date request

How rare are these?

Dime a dozen......

Just kidding. A Nowil in that condition would be pretty scarce in my mind.

Doesn't appear to have been used or messed with in a LONG time.

I'd grab it if it were me.

I am not good at dates. I would grab it because it is in the crazy old and in good shape category. I'd want it for it's age and condition and hope it was rare. Grab it!

Nowill dates back to around 1700 with knives etc I believe, and this to me looks more like 1805-1810 ish. Nothing definitive on my end

And I believe it would be thomas nowill, up to 1825 but again, nothing concrete here

That's a complicated one!

I can tell you with some certainty it was made before 1816 when Thomas Nowill sold his works to James Crawshaw.

With equal certainty, I can say it was made by the Nowil half of Nowil & Kippax.

Take note of the different spellings of Nowill/Nowil. That razor is using the same spelling as the Gales & Martin listing for Nowil & Kippax.

Joseph Nowil died in 1774, and I don't think that razor is that old. His son Thomas took over.

But the records for Nowil(l) & Kippax are extremely confusing. In the 1860's, Sheffield old timers said that the partners sometimes made things under their own names and it was an off & on kind of thing.

Things aren't really helped by a complex web of intermarriages (including a widow of one family directly marrying into the other).

IMHO, the razor is 1790-1805, but it could easily be as late as 1815. Stuff from that time period is very difficult to pin down.

Heh, now that I have it in my possession, a more thorough look shows a previous owner scratched his name in the scales.
Sam Lane?

I know little about dating razors, but to start the discussion, I think the razor dates from very early 1800s or the 1700s based on:
-blade edge being at the same level as the shank,
-very short monkey tail,
-wedge grind,
-natural scale material,
-scale straightness,
-bulls eye washers.

I do not recognize the maker or know about rarity. Someone that really knows will probably add to or correct my response.

HTH

It's a long shot given the medium, but I wonder what a historian familiar w/ period manuscripts might make of the signature.

Thomas Nowill born 1747 was apprenticed to Robert Kippax in 1763, freed in 1772,entered into parnership with Kippax.

"Kippax & Nowill" was founded but in 1775 Robert Kippax died,Thomas Nowill carried on the business until Robert Kippax, junior joined the business under the name "Nowill & Kippax". In 1804 Robert died and Nowill kept the company going as "Nowill" only, under the new company name is where i believed this razor was made, to me the look of the blade and scales looks of that time period.