FINE & RARE 1870s-80s OBJECT D\' ART EXHIBITION PEARL GOLD SILVER SNUFF KNIFE+BOX for Sale

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FINE & RARE 1870s-80s OBJECT D\' ART EXHIBITION PEARL GOLD SILVER SNUFF KNIFE+BOX For Sale

$FINE & RARE 1870s-80s OBJECT D\' ART EXHIBITION PEARL GOLD SILVER SNUFF KNIFE+BOX$
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FINE & RARE 1870s-80s OBJECT D\' ART EXHIBITION PEARL GOLD SILVER SNUFF KNIFE+BOX:
$1995.00

FINE RARE ANTIQUE OBJECT D ART EXHIBITION PEARL GOLD SILVER SNUFF KNIFE WITH BOX FINE RARE ANTIQUE OBJECT D ART EXHIBITION PEARL GOLD SILVER SNUFF KNIFE WITH BOX

FINE & RARE ANTIQUE GENTLEMAN\'S NOVELTY OBJECT D\' ART

EXHIBITION MOTHER OF PEARL COMBINATION SNUFF BOX & POCKETKNIFE

GOLD GILDED SILVER WITH ORIGINAL BOX

SHEFFIELD ~ c. LATE 1870’s – 80’s

Wealthy gentlemen of means, Gamblers, and Sporting Gents desired fancypocket goods, i.e., pocketknives, snuff boxes, cigar / cheroot cases /cutters, match safes that would, when occasion required, be brought out of thejacket or vest pocket with great Victorian flourish, offering a pinch of snuff tobacco,a cigar and to light it for their friend or acquaintance, et al, with a flairof gentlemanly courtesy. Even then, these novelty Gentleman\'s accoutermentswere considered an Object D\' Art and a status symbol. Only a Man of means wouldhave been able to afford such a very high-quality novelty gold gilded silver accoutrementsuch as this that was custom made to order by skilled Sheffield Artisans. Thesehigh-end specialty snuff box / pocket cutlery pieces were very difficult toproduce, and quite costly to purchase. They were made to be displayed in their cutleryshowroom or perhaps a high-end outlet such as a jewelry store or luxury drygoods retailer. It appears the few known Slater Bros. snuff box / pocketknife pieceswere only made for a few short years from around the late 1870’s to the -1880’s.

For hundreds of years, almost all men partook of tobacco. Snuff(finely ground tobacco that was snorted) was a favorite, and quite in vogueduring the heyday of snuff usage from around the mid to late 1700\'s up to aboutthe 4th quarter of the 1800\'s. Snuff boxes are known from the 1500\'s, and comein a myriad of different shapes, sizes, and materials. Quality can range fromFolk Art hand made to exquisite gold jeweled museum quality.

Slater Bros. was founded by Warrington Slater in 1858 on FitzwilliamStreet in Sheffield. They manufactured pen and pocketknives, Bowies, and Dirks,many of which were shipped to the burgeoning American market and also the South Americanmarkets that undoubtedly had less competition from the plethora of otherSheffield Cutlers eager to market their goods. Slater Bros. owned manytrademarks such as the well-known VENTURE mark. In 1876 Slaters factory movedto No. 94, Scotland Street, and they bought the Beehive trademark fromJohn Hincliffe, the well-known maker of Bowies and Dirks. They then acquiredthe Y NOT trademark once owned by George Ward. In 1882, the firmof Unwin & Rodgers was having difficulties and saleed off 8,000 dozenfine pen and pocketknives that were purchased by Slater, and by 1883, Unwin& Rodgers had gone bankrupt. Due to the acquisition of Unwin & Rodgersstock in a full page 1884 ad in the Sheffield Directory, Slater Bros. stated,“every knife made by good workmen”, “they had 5,914 patterns of knives, andalso showed the knives and pistol-knives of Unwin & Rodgers and advertisedBowies, Dirks, Sportsman’s, Hunting, Pen, and Pocketknives” and “the verybest cast steel exclusively used”. Handmade Cast Steel was laboriousand expensive to create and used for the best quality SheffieldCutlery. Most Makers would hot stamp their hand forged blades CAST STEEL todenote the superior quality & temper of the steel. By 1885, Slaters factorywas moved to Fitzwilliam Street in Sheffield and called the Beehive Works. AmericanCutlers began a series of tariffs on Sheffield cutlery beginning in 1891, whichsignificantly impacted Sheffield, the World\'s knife capital for the previousseveral centuries. This may have contributed to Warrington Slater speculatingin property development and building scores of houses in the Crookes area wherehe lived. However, Warrington over-reached himself and his property speculationended in bankruptcy. In 1903, Slater’s cutlery stock and trademarks were soldoff and the Beehive mark passed to Marples & Co. John Slater’s eldest son,Herbert Slater, later bought the company\'s stock and re-established the companycalled the Venture Works in 1907, named after another of their Trademarks, at105 Arundel Street, Sheffield. Between WWI & WWII, the firm made bladeblanks, springs, and liners for other leading Cutlery firms such as JosephRodgers and IXL G. Wostenholm. After WWII, they bought up many old Cutleryfirms and their well-known Trademarks. Sheffield cutlers continued to handforge, grind, polish, and assemble knives by hand; but by the 1970\'s all thelarge Sheffield cutlery firms such as Joseph Rodgers and IXL Wostenholm, ceasedto exist. Slater Bros. outsourced to Cutlers such as Stan Shaw and GrahamClayton and stamped their knives with Slater Marks; but by the 1980\'s, allproduction of knives ended.

The original artistry and craftsmanship of this silver oval Object D\' Artnovelty snuff box knife is superb. This pocket snuff box / knife combination is2 13/16\" long X 13/16\" wide X 9/16\" tall. Weight is 2.0 ouncesor 57 grams. The engraved snuff frame, hinge, and pins are all silver, with themilled liners made from sturdier German Silver. The sides of the silver snuffbox are hand engraved with a center panel of arrows, with top and bottomengraved borders, small punch dot decorations and very fine hand engraved horizontalline engraved decoration all around the outside band. Note the snuff box ismade from silver which is used as the best material for the mercury gold gildingof the inside of the snuff box that produces the deep dark gold coloration. Thereare also traces of gold on the protected areas of the outside band that was originallyembellished with gold which would have been very showy and purposely eyeappealing. The inside snuff box is unused with all of the original gold gilding,with 4 lines of engraving on both the box and lid that are assembly marks. The singleprong of the lid hinge allows slight movement to align and close the lid properlywith an extremely tight seal. Note it requires attention to slowly open the tip oflid when using a fingernail underneath the liner carefully to not chip the tipof the pearl lid. The edges of the German silver liners are hand milled, acharacteristic found on fine pocketknives. The exhibition grade Mother of Pearlscales have an iridescence that is only present in pearl created before theoceans became polluted and is most pronounced in the sunlight. The very fancy silvershield escutcheon is flush; a feature found on quality knives using a parserinlay tool (bow fiddle) device. The pearl scales are also secured with 10 smallsilver pins, 5 on each side. Silver pins / crests are found on kniveswith exhibition mother of pearl (or other thin material scales) to aid theMaster assembler Artisan to set these small pins in the delicate and 4 expensivematching Mother of Pearl scales. Note that well over a century later, the pearlis still intact without pin cracks. This Exhibition pearl has no edge chipping or hairline cracks. I found one edge with a minusculemark that can be seen with a 10x loupe that may appear to be a nick but has adjacenttool marks denoting this was original to the piece of pearl when assembled. Thereare 3 easy open indentations in the edges of the bottom pearl and liners thatprovide access to the nail nicks. Note all the blades have very strong springs,as new. Care must be taken to grasp the knife gently but firmly when opening upany blade with a blade opener tool to ensure you do not drop the knife ordamage the thin, delicate Exhibition pearl. Do not put any dry or liquidlubricant on the blades as it can bleed into the pearl and permanently stain thepearl. Also, only open one of the 2 end blades at a time to avoid unnecessarystrain on the pearl scales that could crack the pearl, and when closing theknife blades, close the small pen blade first. All the springs and blades werehand forged, hand ground, hand tempered, hand fitted, hand polished like anyother antique Sheffield knife All 3 blades have a very strong backsprings and shouldnot be snapped when closing as you could cause the blade to bottom out into theliner and bend or chip the edge. The 1 11/16\" long Master blade is hotstamped with the Beehive hallmark above and SLATER below, with all but the Rhidden underneath the scales. The Master blade has its original edge, contour,and full tip, with remnants of the original signature crocus of Iron polish onthe ricasso and adjacent blade edge. The remaining blade flats have very fine surfacescratch lines that appear to be the attempt by some idiot to clean the scatteredlight naturally occurring black spidering on the top edge of the blade, but theunderneath original crocus of Iron polish can be seen when rotated in thelight. There are still untouched, scattered naturally occurring spots ofspidering on the springs and blades. The 1 1/2“long pen blade long is hotstamped with the Beehive mark over SLATER, has its original edge, contour, andfull tip, with and retains most of the original signature crocus of Iron polishwith light aforementioned lighter surface scratches. The two knife blades couldeasily be polished out by a knife maker or jeweler if desired, but I have left themin as found condition that showcases the original signature crocus of Ironpolish. The 1 15/16” long x 3/16” wide serrated nail file & cleaning bladewith a sharpened end is unmarked with all the original crocus of Iron polish. Remember,these novelty pieces were made for “show and tell” as a novelty Gentleman’saccoutrement, and used as a snuff box, pocketknife and nail file that wascarried around in a pocket and used as a utilitarian object and typically has commensurate wear for being around 140 - 150 years ofage with use as both a knife and a snuff box.

I have only seen a handful of these completely handmade pieces inseveral decades of collecting. This is also the only example I have ever seenwith a snuff box that was gold gilded (still in unused mint condition), and theonly example with the original minty condition Maker marked box. Irrespectiveof the fine blade scratches that could easily be polished; this is the best,fine - near mint condition overall example of a Mother of Pearl novelty snuffbox / knife combination I have ever seen. This is a rare, unusual, and eyeappealing investment quality Object D\' Art and could be displayed in anyGambler, Sporting Gent or Gentleman\'s accouterment, snuff, Tobaccianacollection / display, Sheffield, 19th C., pocketknife, antique cutlery,combination tool, or smalls collector, used as a paper weight, decorator, deskaccessory or conversation piece. Note the images are many times larger than theactual size to show as much detail as possible.

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