Thread: 1830's Edward Allison with fancy bone scales.

Originally Posted by tedh75

Interesting. I love stuff like that. I really enjoyed your article on William Greaves and Sons. Very informative.
I was wondering if you knew anything about he maker of this razor? I have found precious little myself. The "Y" looks familiar and is that a crown next to it or more "Y's". Also can't make out the symbol opposite the "Y". Do you think it is contemporary to the first Allison you posted?

That's a tough one! The part at the top looks like the cutler's corporate mark, which appears to be Y <something> Cross symbol.

The name looks to me like R. HI????D'S. Thankfully, that's all I need to find him!

R. H. Hilliard working at 9 Meadowstreet and listed in Gell's 1825 Sheffield Directory -- his sole listing.

He doesn't turn up in the apprentice registers either, so he didn't go through the traditional training, or at least not in Sheffield. Chances are he was a businessman of some sort and he tried his hand at selling fancy razors.

The SINGLE Gell's listing suggests he wasn't in business for long, but that razor definitely looks more 1830's than 1820's. There was obviously some blending between the styles, but I can't think of ever seeing a tang of that shape from George IV's run.

Thanks for looking! I was thinking it was R. Hibbard which I did find 1 reference to in a thread on this site. I have a pm out to the owner of that razor but haven't heard back yet. Hilliard is just as likely I suppose with the middle of the name being obscured. I quite like this razor even with the cracks in the scale but it is very pricey for me; especially with so little known about the maker.

Originally Posted by tedh75

Thanks for looking! I was thinking it was R. Hibbard which I did find 1 reference to in a thread on this site. I have a pm out to the owner of that razor but haven't heard back yet. Hilliard is just as likely I suppose with the middle of the name being obscured. I quite like this razor even with the cracks in the scale but it is very pricey for me; especially with so little known about the maker.

I'm sorry I missed your earlier post about it, or I would've found this information for you sooner!

I'm pretty confident it's Hilliard, since there were no other people in Sheffield directories with a first initial of R and a last name that began with HI and ended in D. I was also able to find a listing in the 1822 Baines directory, under "Razor Manufacturers" and also "General Cutlery".

It looks like the company also made tableware.

As for the reputation of the manufacturer, I'd expect the razor to be as good as anything anyone in Sheffield made at the time. The name on the tang is just who paid for the work. The work itself was almost certainly done by the same men and women who made razors whose name you'd recognize. So I wouldn't worry too much about the quality of the razor. The scales and the very lesser known mark are the reasons to have a razor like that.