Thread: Fox Bros "Perfection" Sheffield,6/8"

I just won this for AUD$22.50 on the 'bay.
It's "speckled" with rust but I don't see a problem restoring this.
Top and bottom jimps, O.K. scales I guess, and a really sweet blade shape.
The box is pretty beat up but it's the original.
Do our razor detectives have any info on this ?

Hard to tell from the pics - are the scales that rubber stuff? (vulcanite, I think they call it).

James.

the last pic looks like the grain from horn. Really hard to tell though. If it is horn they are totally save-able. I do like the blade shape, and looks like it is wear free too.

I think they look like horn also
should clean up right

They Are great Razors and those are horn scales.

Here is some great info from member Neil


There is a little more to the *P mark than just Samuel Norris, Charlie!

For instance, in 1747 the mark belonged to Fox & Norris of Westbar, Sheffield - not Samuel Norris but his father Matthew Norris, as Samuel would have only been 2 yrs old.
Fox & Norris are also recorded in a 1787 Directory of Sheffield (confusingly, so is William Fox - he died in 1769, however - the only one of the Fox brothers left alive at this time was John Fox). Matthew died in 1761, so the Norris in Fox & Norris in 1787 must have been Samuel Norris.

This is confirmed in a 1797 Directory in which Samuel appears on his own as "Samuel Norris, late of Fox & Norris, factor, razor pen-knife & lancet manufacturer, also razor strop and case maker, 55 Westbar."

The Fox brothers (John: 1714 - 1790s, Stephen: 1716 - 1773, and William: 1719 - 1769) were Samuel's uncles, and Samuel was heir to their business.

Samuel was made Master Cutler in 1777. He had been running another business with his son as "Samuel Norris & Son" - this company is not listed in the 1787 directory, though, but it is recorded that it was dissolved in 1804 so was relatively short-lived. Samuel had five sons. Three of them - Samuel, John & William are all recorded as 'died young' which usually means in infancy and the fourth, another John, was born in 1780 and died in 1826 - he was recorded as a razor maker, so the partnership of Samuel Norris & Son was with son John. The other son, Thomas, was cryptically recorded as 'originally in trade' but was ultimately involved with the church.

Samuel Norris was declared bankrupt in 1809 and died in 1817. At the time of bankruptcy all his goods were sold, including the Westbar premises comprised of house, workshops, warehouses, a grocers shop with its own warehouse and dwelling house, land and with 4 newly erected houses on it, another parcel of land with 12 houses on it - several just built, stables, and his two grinding wheels (Cloughs Wheels) on the River Sheath.

In 1809 there were two others resident at the Culver Street works - Samuels sons John and Thomas Norris. John continued as a razor-smith, but Thomas took to the church quite a while earlier, becoming ordained in that year (1809) an Army Chaplain, Priest in 1810 and dying in Chelsea, London, in 1816.

So, if the maker was Samuel Norris then he could only inherit the '*P' mark after the winding-up of Fox and Norris - some time after 1787 (and possibly in to the 1790s, when the last Fox brother died but before the directory listing of 1797) as the 1797 listing has 'late Fox & Norris' then I would assume that Fox & Norris had traded until comparatively recently to that year. Which gives his dates of operation (ie using the '*P' mark solely for himself) as (say-) 1795 - 1809.

Regards,
Neil

I owe Neil many thanks for this information