Robert Wade and the challenge of sorting history.

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...9/IMG_7751.jpg

I got this off of eBay because I felt certain, based on the grind of the blade, that it was an late 1820's model and thus made under Robert Wade's name by his widow, Jane.

However Neil Miller wasn't too sure about that dating when I showed it him, and now that I have it in hand, neither am I.

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...9/IMG_7752.jpg

There's absolutely no doubt that it's old. I've seen numerous razors dated to the late 1700's with this basic style and it's a style that clearly continued into the 1810's. Supposedly, Robert Wade began making razors in 1816, but the man is surrounded by mystery and there's very little solid information about him. He died in 1825.

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...9/IMG_7754.jpg

The other Wade stamped razor I have was purchased from Robert Doyle who dated it to roughly 1815. When you see both razors together it really looks like a slam dunk that Doyle was wrong and my new Wade razor is actually the older one. The straight scales, the small shoulderless blade (it's about 4/8), the simplistic stamp, all scream 'old' far louder than the design features of the R. Wade / Warranted blade.

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...9/IMG_7755.jpg

Compare it to this very early Thomas Scargill blade. Note that the scales are very similar (though the Wade razor has a lead wedge and the Scargill does not).

So where's the challenge here? Clearly this Wade razor is from the beginning of Robert Wade's known production, right?

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...9/IMG_7756.jpg

Except, the grind of the blade, with that pronounced lip along the spine, is quite similar to this Hiram Gilbert stamped razor (probably made by Joseph Elliot) in the 1830's. To the best of my knowledge, no one was grinding razors like that in the 1810's.

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...9/IMG_7757.jpg

But the lip isn't that pronounced compared to the Hiram Gilbert. Plus, razors were regularly reground by street vendors who set up foot-powered wheels and offered to clean and fix old razors. Maybe it was reground into the 1830's style?

Or maybe Jane Wade made it herself, desperate for income after the death of her husband, and with only the skills she'd acquired by watching her father or brothers or spouse at work. She continued to produce razors with his stamp for four years before the inevitable caught up to her.

I seriously doubt I'll ever know. But there are some questions that MIGHT help.

Are there other very early razors with a pronounced spine bulge?

Is the lack of a first initial on the stamp any kind of indicator?

Those are things we might be able to find out.

Good questions and I've no good answers for you.

Fascinating old razor either way.
W

According to my findings Mrs Wade was listed as a razor maker for about a year before she passed.
"The partnership with Butcher ended. In 1828, only Mrs. Robert Wade was listed as a razor manufacturer in Arundel Street (in one directory, the listed name was Jane Wade). Finally, the local press reported that Mrs. Robert Wade, the relict of Mr. Wade of Arundel Street, had died near Sheffield on 14 July 1829 "(Sheffield Independent, 18 July 1829).
That said perhaps your razor is from her business, would be interesting to find out for sure.

I do tend to shy away from high collector interest items... but darn if W&B's keep catching my fancy and I can't shake em off :p

My Clark N Hall has that slight spine grind as well. After seeing a few other CnH's I'm thinking mine is an early one as well (1798 start up), the later pieces looked more post 1810...

Neat thread! I really like this old history!

I got a John Barber with a grind very similar.
I am not certain about the logos they used, but they did use at least 2 different ones.
JB operated 1810 - 1834.

Take a look.

Interesting read for sure :tu

I've been digging into the records of the Cutlers' Company of Hallamshire and it's shaking the pillars of heaven a bit.

So, as I mentioned when I started this thread, I assumed this razor was made in the late 1820's when I bought it. I assumed (as most folks do) that R. WADE razors were made by Robert Wade, partner with William and Samuel Butcher.

The thing is, it's real hard for me to accept that the razor I posted pictures of in this thread is as 'late' as the 1816 start date listed for him. So I started questioning everything and digging through records.

The real problem is that there were a lot of guys named Wade, including a merchant named Richard Wade. It's not horribly difficult to believe that the R. WADE stamped blade was made for Richard Wade and not by Robert Wade.

Then there's the matter of this one, stamped simply WADE. I started really scrutinizing it today after honing up a recently acquired Rhodes & Champion. The Rhodes & Champion was made before 1814, probably pretty shortly before. This Wade razor looks distinctly older to me. The scales are straight as an arrow, the silver pin collars are thick with oxidation and the blade just feels old in that unexplainable way some older razors do. Then I noticed that it had initials scratched in. They're in the pictures I posted here, but not really visible. They were scratched in long before the age damage set in. I turned the blade over, looking at it in bright sunlight and saw what looked an awful lot like a blood stain running the length of the pile side of the scales. Then I saw '1777' scratched at the far wedge end. Under UV light the stain looks a LOT like a blood stain -- it's got sharp boundaries and varying density of darkening -- and it pools into the '1777' inscription.

I have no explanation for the possible blood stain. Still thinking this was a razor made by Robert Wade, I assumed that it had been in a collector's pile for a long time and someone in the late 1800's decided to mock up a revolutionary war item for a bit of extra cash.

All the same, I hit the books and discovered that one Thomas Wade was apprenticed to Abraham Ibberson in the mid-1700's and freed in 1765, making that 1777 date suddenly way more plausible than I'd originally thought.

Mind you, I still think it's unlikely, but I can't really dismiss it out of hand now.

The Cutlers' Company does not list any apprentices with the first initial of R.

Now I'm wondering if the whole assumption that the Butcher's partner Wade had made razors under his own name isn't based on the R. WADE stamped razors which may have been made for a completely separate Wade.

Plus, as I'm fond of pointing out, basing the age of a razor on its morphology is a dangerous business and should only be done as a last resort when no other information exists. All the same, I am now going "hmmmmmm" about all these Wades.

If R. Wade was Richard Wade, Merchant, then a great many of the Wade mysteries are simplified. The identity of Robert Wade would continue to be tantalizingly unknown, especially with his wife listed as a Razor Manufacturer. But that by itself does not necessarily imply that there was a Wade stamp associated with that family.

A little bit of thread zombie here.

Another pertinent bit of history, regarding the Cutler's Company.

For all of the 18th century (that is, the 1700's -- it's amazing how often I see folks unsurprisingly confuse that) the Cutler's Company of Hallamshire had complete legal control of the cutlery trade in Sheffield, they were a proper guild and they had guild laws for things like who could be a Master, how many apprentices a Master could have and what marks a Master could stamp on his wares.

There's a whole lot of inside baseball and labor relations minutia that happens toward the end of the 1700's, right around 1780. Basically, the Journeymen were upset that the officers of the company weren't looking out for their interests because they were just wealthy dudes with no actual connection to the work they were putting their collective thumb on. They complained to Parliament and Parliament leaned on the Cutler's Company until they agreed to elect new officers out of the body of Journeymen. The Journeymen were happy and time marched ever onwards.

But the officers very quickly figured out how to game that system and they just elected Journeymen who would tow the party line. So by the early 1800's, the same old stifling was going on and the actual workmen were back to Parliament. There was some back-and-forth and finally, in 1814, Parliament revoked the monopoly of the Cutler's Company. The institution stuck around (in fact, it remains to this day!), but it pretty quickly became a records-keeping industry and an excuse for fancy parties -- later on, toward the end of the 1800's, they would become very useful again by helping Sheffield cutlers litigate foreign businesses who stole their marks, but for a long time they were really just the Party-Party.

What that meant from a practical standpoint is that prior to 1814, anyone making cutlery in Sheffield had to go through an apprenticeship in order to register their mark with the Cutler's Company. Some of the marks were really, really old -- Joseph Rodgers had been using that same Star and Cross, under their family name, back to the early 1700's. There were about a billion variations of crowns, crosses, stars and pipes. Then it became place names, then random words and finally the Company just started handing out sequential numbers (which might be where the Joseph Smith '3415' number came from). Heiffor's squiggly thing was good and old too.

But come 1814, the floodgates opened and anyone could put down some coins at the registrar and have their own mark (provided it didn't conflict with a previous one -- my guess is a certain I. BARBER paid a bit extra to allow a tiny measure of confusion).

So Robert Wade would not have needed to complete an apprenticeship to be granted his freedom and use of a mark. He just needed some capital. Cutlers then -- even employees -- rented their workspace from one of the big shops. Enough coin to buy steel and a saddle in front of the grindstone and anyone could make razors.

Just as long as they survived. Sometimes those wheels exploded.

Then you'd just hire a couple of 8 year olds to polish them and you're good to go! And the kids'll work for moldy bread!

[QUOTE= Heiffor's squiggly thing was good and old too.

QUOTE]

What about that? I think is was fake Hindi, Like the fake Chinese. Thoughts?
Sorry! :HJ
Just interested! :D

[QUOTE=sharptonn;1112370]

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Heiffor's squiggly thing was good and old too.

QUOTE

What about that? I think is was fake Hindi, Like the fake Chinese. Thoughts?
Sorry! :HJ
Just interested! :D

---

It's a very good hijacking though, considering what a mystery that mark's been, and me sounding all definitive about it and all!

I'm utterly failing at the moment to remember where I was reading about it recently. This is a problem I run into when I come across information for one thing while I'm looking for something else.

This much I can tell you: wherever I saw it described it as a distinctive series of loops and commas. I can't argue with that! I thought it might have been in Tweedale's Directory, but I just double checked and it's not.

Some things I can tell you about Heiffor:

• His business advertisements state 1793 as the start date of the company.
• He's listed in the rolls of apprentices as having apprenticed twice, only the second time to a cutler. His father. Also named John.
• The earliest directory listings for him in the 1820's list him as both a razor maker and a hairdresser and perfumer.
• Whoever made the squiggle mark stamps didn't bother much with consistency. They very quite a bit over the years!

As for what the hell the mark is... I have no idea. Early cutler's marks are just weird. Go back far enough and they look like alchemical symbols:

http://books.google.com/books?id=2KE...0%2C834&edge=0

But in the late 1700's they were something closer to recognizable symbols (though at this point most were recognizable symbols or names, I've picked out just some of the oddities from Gales & Martin's directory).

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...rsOddities.png
(apparently William, John and Robert Wright decided their mark would just be everything)
(also, these marks are culled from files, tableware, knives and razors -- not just razors)

And it's worth noting that Heiffor's squiggles can be rendered with 6's, 9's, commas, quotes and semi-colons -- that is, it's made purely from type dies, just arranged with ... eccentricity.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

And it's worth noting that Heiffor's squiggles can be rendered with 6's, 9's, commas, quotes and semi-colons -- that is, it's made purely from type dies, just arranged with ... eccentricity.

---

Or at least some variations of it are. The ones on your blades emphatically are not.

It has been discussed here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...or-blades.html

Since I started this thread well over a year ago, I've accumulated kind of a lot more information about Robert Wade.

But more importantly, I've accumulated another Robert Wade razor.

Here's a family portrait.

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...01/DSC0500.jpg

The new arrival is the one in black scales. It's hard to say for sure if they're the scales the razor came in since it's been repinned at some point, but they're plausible. The whole package, to my eye, says 'mid 1820's'. There are a number of things that interest me.

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...01/DSC0501.jpg

Looking past the ugly hone wear you might notice that the blade is awfully dark. The pile side is the same. Very uniform. Very dark, and the tang is light. I very strongly suspect this blade was intentionally blued, and probably when it was made.

That likely date of mid-1820's is also very interesting to me. Robert Wade partnered with the Butcher brothers in 1818, and he was dead mid-year 1825. That very, very strongly suggests to me that this razor was made by Jane.

In any event, Robert Wade was the son of a wealthy grain-vendor. He was born in the late 1700's and his mother and father attended the big dinners put on by the Cutler's Company. His father died at some point, but his mother significantly outlived him.

He died in June, 1825 and left two children: his son Robert and his daughter Jane Elizabeth. His wife, Jane, outlived him by only 4 years. At that point it appears that William and Samuel Butcher took in his kids.

At any rate, the young Robert Wade went to work for them and moved to America where he married a prominent socialite, the incredibly confusingly named Charlotte Bourne Swett. Why confusing? Because there were two women with the same name born within 2 years of each other to completely different families hundreds of miles from each other.

Charlotte's brother-in-law caused a minor stir in the papers by drowning while out swimming with her at Cape May, NJ. Some years later, Charlotte died either in child birth or shortly after her daughter, Charlotte Bourne was... um, born.

Charlotte retained her mother's maiden name, possibly because the Swett family took her in rather than leave a freshly widowed man with no local family to raise a newborn on his own. Years later, Wade remarried to Mary Anne Reed and they had two children: Eleanor (after Robert's still living mother, back in Sheffield) and Maida.

It was around that time that Wade got to know William Gilchrist. At the time, Wade and his family lived at the rather fancy Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, Gilchrist and his family was about a block away. The two got along well enough that when Gilchrist was charged with treason and faced hanging, he called Robert Wade as a character witness.

From there, Wade & Butcher begins to fade, and Robert retires to a quiet life in New York. He died in 1887, Mary Anne in 1899. Their daughters married well, and one of his granddaughters became a famous adventurer, had an affair with Buckminster Fuller and married the man who invented the New Times Roman typeface.

There's a whole lot more detail to all this, but I thought that thumbnail sketch of the family history might be fun. :)

Voidmonster, please don't stop researching, writing, and sharing with us - your posts are fascinating and each time I feel like I come away feeling more informed, intrigued, and drawn into the history of these wonderful tools! So, thank you!

+1 for Suavio post, knowledge is power! Very interesting history, wade, Gilchrist, Butcher's Bros, big names in the razor history world.

I've spent a LOT of time on Wade at this point... All because it never fully made sense that a partnership that lasted 7 years would dominate the trade mark of a venture like W & S Butcher. There's still lots of questions I want answered, but the biggest ones have finally been solved. :)

The last knot to come untied was the fate of Charlotte B. Swett. For over a year I could never find an obit for her or any mention after her brother-in-law drowned, but I guess new articles got scanned or someone fixed up the OCR, because her obituary is now findable and is within the margin of error for the birth date of their daughter.

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...t-Cape-May.gif

I'm on pins and needles ........ so did they hang that Gilchrist fellow, or is he one and the same as the Jersey City Gilchrist who was associated with W&B ? :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I'm on pins and needles ........ so did they hang that Gilchrist fellow, or is he one and the same as the Jersey City Gilchrist who was associated with W&B ? :)

---

He's one and the same!

They held him in a military prison for 7 months and killed his business. He was ultimately released because the British consul started sending angry letters (Gilchrist remained a British citizen, though he lived in America for most of his life).

As near as I can tell, based on the court records, newspaper stories and career arcs of the folks involved, Gilchrist was charged with treason because his annoying insistence on pestering the war department about this guy buying primer cap and sending them to the south. Bringing that to the attention of larger authorities seems to have put a crimp in the steady pocket-lining that secret service agent Lafayette Baker had going in the rebel munitions business.

The whole thing was deeply weird. Gilchrist's claims that he had asked the war department about whether or not to keep selling to these guys seems pretty plausible, since his eldest son was a Union medic and his brother-in-law an important General. It's a bit hard to imagine he was happy to make money that might kill his family.

The official release was a 'do not prosecute' order. It let the prosecutors comply with the diplomatic will without ever admitting they were wrong. The stated reason being "he's unlikely to ever do this again."

Excellent thread and research.

I'm waiting for the book

In part because of this thread and the wonderful sense of history in imbues, I recently purchased a Wade & Butcher and eagerly await its arrival in the mail. This will be my first straight razor. Given I understand they can be a bit hefty, it might not be the first straight with which I shave.

Thanks again for a great thread.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OKAllen

In part because of this thread and the wonderful sense of history in imbues, I recently purchased a Wade & Butcher and eagerly await its arrival in the mail. This will be my first straight razor. Given I understand they can be a bit hefty, it might not be the first straight with which I shave.

Thanks again for a great thread.

---

You're very welcome!

Unless you specifically got a hefty Wade & Butcher, I wouldn't assume it is just because of the name. They made a wider variety of razors than anyone I can think of. I have late models that are paper-thin, and early ones that are small as well as huge slabs of steel and everything in between.

Ooo I was bidding on that wade, glad you ended up with it
Great thread!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DennisBarberShop

Ooo I was bidding on that wade, glad you ended up with it
Great thread!

---

Three is my limit. Any others I'll be sitting out. :)

Nice, hit me up if u see one lol

I've been a SRP member for several months now and this will be my first time to post anything. I've been following this thread for while and it is so interesting, it's like a good book you can't put down. So keep investigating and posting and I will keep reading and learning.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...9/IMG_7751.jpg

I got this off of eBay because I felt certain, based on the grind of the blade, that it was an late 1820's model and thus made under Robert Wade's name by his widow, Jane.

However Neil Miller wasn't too sure about that dating when I showed it him, and now that I have it in hand, neither am I.

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...9/IMG_7752.jpg

There's absolutely no doubt that it's old. I've seen numerous razors dated to the late 1700's with this basic style and it's a style that clearly continued into the 1810's. Supposedly, Robert Wade began making razors in 1816, but the man is surrounded by mystery and there's very little solid information about him. He died in 1825.

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...9/IMG_7754.jpg

The other Wade stamped razor I have was purchased from Robert Doyle who dated it to roughly 1815. When you see both razors together it really looks like a slam dunk that Doyle was wrong and my new Wade razor is actually the older one. The straight scales, the small shoulderless blade (it's about 4/8), the simplistic stamp, all scream 'old' far louder than the design features of the R. Wade / Warranted blade.

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...9/IMG_7755.jpg

Compare it to this very early Thomas Scargill blade. Note that the scales are very similar (though the Wade razor has a lead wedge and the Scargill does not).

So where's the challenge here? Clearly this Wade razor is from the beginning of Robert Wade's known production, right?

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...9/IMG_7756.jpg

Except, the grind of the blade, with that pronounced lip along the spine, is quite similar to this Hiram Gilbert stamped razor (probably made by Joseph Elliot) in the 1830's. To the best of my knowledge, no one was grinding razors like that in the 1810's.

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...9/IMG_7757.jpg

But the lip isn't that pronounced compared to the Hiram Gilbert. Plus, razors were regularly reground by street vendors who set up foot-powered wheels and offered to clean and fix old razors. Maybe it was reground into the 1830's style?

Or maybe Jane Wade made it herself, desperate for income after the death of her husband, and with only the skills she'd acquired by watching her father or brothers or spouse at work. She continued to produce razors with his stamp for four years before the inevitable caught up to her.

I seriously doubt I'll ever know. But there are some questions that MIGHT help.

Are there other very early razors with a pronounced spine bulge?

Is the lack of a first initial on the stamp any kind of indicator?

Those are things we might be able to find out.

---

Sorry to dig up a relatively old thread but I was wondering if you ever found any more information out about the WADE stamped razor that you acquired (the top one)? I have one with the exact same lettering, although a slightly different blade style, and wondered if it really was a Robert / Jane Wade....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by eaglesgift

Sorry to dig up a relatively old thread but I was wondering if you ever found any more information out about the WADE stamped razor that you acquired (the top one)? I have one with the exact same lettering, although a slightly different blade style, and wondered if it really was a Robert / Jane Wade....

---

I apologize for how long it's taken me to reply to you, but I've been in the midst of moving, buying a house, and now preparing to move again.

Yes, I can tell you a good deal about Robert Wade now. But if you can post pictures of your razor, I can be more helpful.

At this point I am entirely certain that his wife Jane continued selling razors with his name on them for several years after his death, and his son of the same name went to work as a salesman for Wade & Butcher in America. He produced razors from 1815 until his death in 1825, and Jane continued making them (from the same factory as Wade & Butcher) until her death in 1829.

Thanks very much for your reply. Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for the razor to arrive so I don't have any pictures to post yet. I'm hoping it's a delay at customs somewhere and not a complete loss. Anyway, from the pictures I saw before I bought it, the stamp is exactly the same as the razor in the first picture in this thread but the blade shape is more similar to the second ( R. Wade Warranted) razor in the thread. The scales were described as wood and looked quite rough to my eyes so may well not be original (?) I bought it on eBay a couple of weeks ago actually (and probably overpaid for it) so you might have seen it on there.

Ah! Yes. I have one in that blade style. When you get it, you'll find that there's probably a very faint etching on the top of the spine. It reads 'Ne Plus Ultra'.

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...11/DSC1222.jpg

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...11/DSC1223.jpg

(It's there in the second image, really)

These were smaller 'travel size' razors, but made in the same style as the much larger 'Magnum Bonum' razors. Many Sheffield producers made them and they were all more or less the same with very slight variations in the way the tang and the blade met. The most distinctive feature is that all of them have a tang that 'droops' slightly from the blade.

As near as I can tell this style was most popular between 1805 and 1815. Or at least, that's when all the newspaper ads that I can find for them were published. There were later versions of both the 'Magnum Bonum' and 'Ne Plus Ultra' razors, but by then they were a somewhat generic razor shape with the marketing slogan etched onto the face of the blade instead of the spine.

Judging by the auction pictures, the spine is more rounded than that - at the edges - so I'm not sure it's the same style. Below are a couple of downsized images from the auction, I hope it's OK to post them. If not, my apologies to admin. I realise it's not in great condition but I had a moment of madness as I really wanted an early 1800s straight.

Attachment 217363

Attachment 217364

Hah! Yes, yes indeed! That one looks to be about the same as the one I have with the "R. Wade" stamp, probably just a little bit earlier.

I was confused because this razor also recently sold through eBay:

Attachment 217365

If you're not well-versed in honing, you should send that one to a professional, but it will definitely be able to shave. It's just going to be some work getting it there.

Great! - Thanks very much for shedding some light on it for me, I really appreciate your expert opinion. So, you'd put it somewhere in the 1820s maybe?

I really hope it has not gone astray in the mail now. I paid extra for priority shipping but unfortunately the tracking ends when the package leaves the USA. I expected it to arrive toward the end of last week but I'm hoping it's just been held up in customs. It actually took 11 days to get from North Carolina to Los Angeles so maybe postal workers around the world are on a go slow.

I might have a problem with the honing, assuming it does eventually turn up, as I live in Thailand. I am visiting family in the UK in a couple of weeks time though so maybe I can find a honemeister there who can do the job for me before I return.

Anyway, thanks again for answering my questions. I only have 3 straights so far, two of which are wedges. There's something about the weight and feel of a wedge blade that I really love, and the history side of it gives me a real buzz for some reason.

The history of them is what keeps me interested, so I know what you mean!

I would estimate your razor was made closer to 1815 than 1820. The later razors made by him included the first initial, R.

Best of luck with the postal situation! It can sometimes take quite a long time for international shipping. I think the longest for me was a month and a week.

I just found a pink slip from the main post office delivered today - they are holding something for me with some duty to pay (much less than I was expecting). I think this must be my razor as I'm not expecting anything else. Looks like I'll be able to get a better look at it tomorrow when I can go to the post office and collect it :) Your good luck wishes must have done the trick - cheers!

From the Boston Evening Transcript Jun 16, 1914.
Attachment 226703

Charlotte was his first child with his first wife. Sadly, Charlotte (the elder) died very shortly after her daughter was born.

It took a great deal of effort to track down any information on what happened to her after the birth of their daughter, or indeed what happened to their daughter after she was born. It looks like the baby went off to live with the Swett family until Robert married Mary Ann Reed (probably sometime around 1856-57, since Eleanor was born in late November 1857).

I'd never managed to track down an obit for Charlotte the younger, and didn't try very hard since I'd assumed she and her husband moved to Switzerland! GREAT find, Martin!

Now to just figure out what happened to Robert's sister, Jane Elizabeth!