Thread: Need help identifying Anchor stamped Sheffield? Razor

Hi folks,
This razor that I recently aquired has only an anchor stamping on the tang. It would appear to be a Sheffield made razor, any ideas who the manufacturer could have been? I spotted an ebay listing of a razor Old Early Antique Vintage Wade & Butcher Straight Razor Anchor Hallmark Stamp | eBaywith a very similar anchor mark, and that one is also marked Wade & Butcher?
Any help would be appreciated.

Wade and Butcher has used an anchor stamp (link here) on at least one model; that's the best I've done by searching the site for "anchor." The W&B tang had a lot more info on it than your pic shows.

Lots of makers offered a "Celebrated" razor, but yours is the first one I've noticed with a big misspelling on the scales--only one "L" in "Celebrated." They went to some trouble to make the scales say that, too. I look forward to a more knowledgeable response than my own.

I sure hope you can clean it up without losing those great washers. Show us some after pics!

I'm pretty certain that the anchor stamp designated that it was made in Birmingham, not Sheffield. It looks to me like it used to have some sort of a photo-etch on the blade, but in the condition it's currently in, that is effectively lost.

The anchor designated that silver had been assayed in Birmingham, in this case it's surely a maker's mark. Here's one very similar to your anchor though if I remember rightly it's been used as a mark by many makers (on the continent too). Looks like a Sheffield and a great looking piece, whatever. Good luck with the restoration, love those pins by the way, surely original. I would certainly go with less is more when working on that one.

Originally Posted by AlanII

The anchor designated that silver had been assayed in Birmingham, in this case it's surely a maker's mark. Here's one very similar to your anchor though if I remember rightly it's been used as a mark by many makers (on the continent too). Looks like a Sheffield and a great looking piece, whatever. Good luck with the restoration, love those pins by the way, surely original. I would certainly go with less is more when working on that one.

Yup! You're right, and if I'd just done the digging before I posted there'd have been no need to correct me.

Here's a bit more information.

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

Yup! You're right, and if I'd just done the digging before I posted there'd have been no need to correct me.

Not only have I been there, I'll probably be there again before too long.

Thanks for the help guys. I was waiting to see if anyone else would catch the "Cellebrated" misspelling. I guess we will not know the maker, but that is fine. I am definitely doing a restoration with more of a light touch. The blade just got cleaned up in the vibratory tumbler, and the scales will need a little straightening and just a light polish. The rosette washers were saved by carefully drilling out the pins. I will post some after pictures when everything is back together.

Originally Posted by MattW

Thanks for the help guys. I was waiting to see if anyone else would catch the "Cellebrated" misspelling. I guess we will not know the maker, but that is fine. I am definitely doing a restoration with more of a light touch. The blade just got cleaned up in the vibratory tumbler, and the scales will need a little straightening and just a light polish. The rosette washers were saved by carefully drilling out the pins. I will post some after pictures when everything is back together.

Oh yeah, 'Cellebrated' isn't precisely a misspelling. More likely it's intentionally old fashioned. It was commonly spelled that way in at least the first half of the 1700's. B. Swartz, writing to Henry Johnson in 1724 said (this is a tiny, tiny snippet):

A ffimaous Fransiscan after he had given his Saint more power than God made his Complim' to the Vice King, bringing the Virgin down in a Chariot drawn by Six white Bulls to Fetch him to heaven for his Sanctity, and as he's going to Accept of it he Cryd out Gaurds, Gaurds, Halbardears, Stop him, stop him in the King's name, stop him for the Benefitt of his Church & Kingdoms, Oh your Excellency Leave us not for we Perish. -- Much had I to do to suppress a Loud Laughter and was Forced to duck below the ---- to vent myself; his Sermon & Modes was Cellebrated to the sky so I Joynd with the Learned world to Comend it.

(Excerpted from The Procedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1864-1865)

Dunno, seems that other guy's ssfpelling was pretty ff*****ed (back then, swear words were called "sseven-lletter wordes") too.

Originally Posted by roughkype

Dunno, seems that other guy's ssfpelling was pretty ff*****ed (back then, swear words were called "sseven-lletter wordes") too.

There may be a typo or two in my transcription, but yeah, that spelling is pretty odd. Not quite as odd as this, though.