Thread: Wostenholm Brothers ??

I noticed in the classifieds that Zeth has a nice Joseph Wostenholm & Sons for sale. I've been fooling with straight razor collecting since the early '80s and never before noticed that there was a Joseph. I had always seen George Wostenholm & Sons. So I know that the company is one of the oldest and I'm wondering if Joseph was a brother or one of the sons of George ? Anyone know what the history on that is ?

Very difficult to say, who was Joseph Wostenholm for George Wostenholm. I couldn't find true info about this.
In Geo.Wostenholm biography nothing about Joseph.

This is a small article on this subject from Knife World's "Razor Anthology".As I understand it,Adolph Castor tried to market razors under this Joseph Wostenholm brand to capitalize on the popularity of the Wostenholm name,and was sued by the George Wostenholm company.The EBRO mark being registered later by Castor and appearing on the razor described and the two I've seen lends some credence to this theory.

Certainly there are those more expert at this than I,and hopefully they will correct me if this is wrong,but I wanted to post this little information I had.The pertinent part begins in the second column at Joseph Wostenholm.

Great work Alan ! That explains it and what an interesting explanation. The razor mentioned in the article is exactly like the one Zeth has in the classifieds.

Joseph Wostenholm and Sons were a legit company - they were at the Perseverance Works in Sheffield in 1892 - with the Ebro trademark - according to Eileen Woodheads makers marks book.

Ebro was the brand-name of Adolph Kastor (sometimes spelled with a "C") - from the late 1900s at least, so he probably bought the mark from JW & Sons. Alfred Williams (c1890 - 1920) also used the Ebro mark.

George Butcher, along with his son James and James's sons Samuel and William became the business partners in Sheffield, William becoming Master Cutler in 1845. Trade in America was run by business partner Robert Wade - the firm was, of course, Wade & Butcher. After the Civil War trade drastically declined, and both Samuel and William were dead by 1870. However, the works in Arundel Street, Sheffield continued as "W. & S. Butcher" with Charles Fosbury Butcher, Sigmund Kastor and Alfred Williams at the helm. Which neatly brings us back to Kastor and Williams, mentioned above. So Kastor and Williams had a solid background behind them!

Regards,
Neil.

I read this article. But in other sources, Joseph Wostenholm was a real separate company.
Joseph Wostenholm & Co. - 1848 - 1854.
Joseph Wostenholm, EBRO, Perseverance Works - 1854 - 1867.

Thanks for the clarification Niel. The plot thickens as they say. Very cool website you've got there. Congrats on getting the business going and I hope you do very well with it.

According to Eileen Woodheads in 1892 was trademark. Perhaps the company could no longer exist.

Ref.1892 - and we see:

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Thanks for the clarification Niel. The plot thickens as they say. Very cool website you've got there. Congrats on getting the business going and I hope you do very well with it.

Thanks Jimmy - much obliged to you!

The trademark thing can be very interesting - they were jealously guarded and entered into a register, no-one else being allowed to use the mark. However, when a company became defunct, no longer in existence, or the next of kin showed no interest in retaining it, they were up for grabs again.

I have a book about London cutlers and razor makers, and it is amazing how often women retained the mark their dead husband had registered, even if they had to take on skilled labout to keep the brand going - and thats going back to the late 1600s - 1700s.. They discovered emancipation a bit earlier than the rest of the world, I guess.

Regards,
Neil

Alex - the "ref" citation in the book denotes the date of the citation that is being referenced, ie the source for the info. in that particular listing came from 1892.

Regards,
Neil