Thread: Vintage Razor Information-John Petty & Sons Trademark

It is very hard to get an age that is more precise than within 2 or 3 decades. If there is a Royal Warrant held then you may get lucky with the mark of a short lived king like George IV or William IV, conversely you may be unlucky and get a long lived one like Queen Victoria.

Company names may be an aid before sons joined the company, but after that they might well be the same for generations.

Same goes for 'dated' events recorded on razors, which may have been made for yonks after the event, if indeed they dated back to the event recorded on them in the first place.

With a cutler who served a proper apprenticeship you stand a bit of a chance. Entry to the Cutlers Guild and the right to record a mark help, at least as far as Sheffield (and London) are concerned. A cutler would take an apprentice or two or more when they were little more than boys. They would live with the cutler for the duration of the apprenticeship (usually a minimum of 7 years, but it could be shorter or longer) and they were expected to keep up religion and not get married. Then there would be a year or two of working under journeyman/freeman status.

So, in this scenario we would see a young man, around 20 yrs, no family, starting in business. If he set up on his own account then most likely he would use his own name, if he had son at this time it would be a babe. You then allow for the sons apprenticeship and coming of age and incorporation into the company, at which time the registered name would have '& Son' tacked on the end. So you could make a reasonably good guess at a likely 'earliest' period.

Things like the Mackinly Tariff Act may or may not help, for instance no 'England' (country of origin) would seem to date a razor to pre 1891, but this does not take into account existing stock held before the Act became law, nefarious attempts to circumvent the Act or domestic product not intended for export.

All a bit of a minefield, really...

Regards,
Neil