Our Provincial Art Museums & Galleries
The Mappin Art Gallery SheffieldThe most interesting portion of the Museum is perhaps the Technological division, which illustrates the industries of the locality, the objects being chiefly contributed by various manufacturers in Sheffield. Here may be seen specimens of iron, steel, tools and cutlery in various states of manufacture, and with the aid of the little guide book ~ edited by Mr. Elijah Howarth, the curator, which admirably explains the processes of the different manufactures ~ the visitor is fully able to appreciate the valuable lesson which these objects teach.

Naturally special interest is attached to cutlery in Sheffield, and in this Museum may be seen specimens of the earliest forms of pocket knives and table cutlery. Mr. E. Howarth says, it is not precisely known how far back the manufacture of cutlery has been Carried on in Sheffield, but it is certain that Sheffield cutlery has been celebrated for more than five hundred years, as is shown by Chaucer’s reference to it in his “Canterbury Tales,” which were written about the year 1364, where, in the description of the Miller of Trompington, he says:-

“A Sheffield thwitel bare in his hose.”

The Sheffield whittle was a very rude knife, consisting of a rough blade fastened to a wooden handle, and for a long time there was little improvement upon it. The “jack knife” followed the whittle, and this was supported by a tang when open, and had a groove in the handle for the blade to shut into.

The pocket knife had been in use for a long while before the spring was adapted to it, as the' earliest form with one is supposed to have been made about the year 1600. Table cutlery is of greater antiquity than pocket cutlery, as table knives were certainly in use amongst the Anglo-Saxons.

Sheffield from very early time has always been anxious to maintain her reputation for cutlery, and the Cutlers’ Company of Hallamshire was incorporated in 1624 for the protection of the “industry, labour and reputation” of the trade, which was being disgraced by the “deceitful and unworkmanlike wares of various persons.”

In addition to the specimens of English manufacture, it has been the aim of the authorities to obtain collections of cutlery and tools used in various foreign countries. These are of the greatest interest and value, not only from an ethnological, but also from a commercial point of view to the inhabitants of Sheffield. Already specimens of most of the European and Oriental countries have been obtained, and amongst the most recent donations have been Chinese native tools from Swatow, Hankow, Shanghai, Tientsin, and Canton, collected and presented by H.B.M. Consuls at these ports; there is also an interesting collection of Turkish tools and implements in various metals from Constantinople.

The Museum likewise contain some specimens of old Sheffield silver-plated goods, such as candlesticks which were manufactured before the discovery of electro-plating. A thin sheet of silver was laid on. a thick one of copper, then heated in a furnace, and afterwards rolled into one sheet, the silver forming a thin covering to the copper.