Thread: W.W.Tait Nottingham .. info?

Interesting info, Neil! This one has Johnathan Crookes, but no son. Also it does have "England" on the tang.
Could it be supposed that after the son's death, the company continued without the "Son" on the mark?

Jonathan retired in 1841 and the business was in Henry's hands until his death in 1892. That left a year after the Mckinley Tariff Act to include 'England' on the tang. There were at least three trade names used with the heart/pistol device: Jonathan Crookes, Jonathan Crookes & Son, Jonathan Crookes & Sons.

That was not the end of Crookes trademarks though - they were bought by Joseph Allen circa 1903. The marks passed hands again in the 1950s when Slater bought them. slater used the marks until the 1990s on knives.

Regards,
Neil

So, perhaps this one is an 1892? The blade design is surely different than anything I have seem from Jos Allen!

blade etch

W W Tait .. love the archaic typeface

obverse with Heart&Pistol

naff hingepin .. but its brass imho

lead wedge
altogether perhaps not of the highest quality .. but adequate

Wow Neil, where'd you get all that info from? I love hearing about the history of all the different makers. I really wanna get some of those books on straights but their all expensive to buy and out of print.

Originally Posted by saitou

Wow Neil, where'd you get all that info from? I love hearing about the history of all the different makers. I really wanna get some of those books on straights but their all expensive to buy and out of print.

Quite a few are to be found for free by searching Google books - but it helps if you know what you are looking for, as you need to wade through a lot of stuff otherwise. Perhaps the single most useful book quoted extensively here - and almost word for word on some members websites - is Geoffrey Tweedales, which costs a lot and is not available as an e-book as far as I know. Old newspaper archives that are searchable are great, as are old telephone directories, that often have multiple entries for some makers showing all the things they sold, as well as advertisements.

Ancestry sites are another good source of info, though very time consuming to sift through. A lot of the old Sheffield Trades Directories can be found online and in old bookshops. Perhaps the best sources are old bookshops and second-hand book sites on the web like Alibris and Abe Books.

Regards,
Neil