IXL, W. Crown R. George Wostenholm Improved Cutlery, Rare Pearl Folding Dirk True Whittler Knife, Circa 1832-1837, ‼️ EXTREMELY RARE ‼️

In 1745, George Wolstenholme began the manufacture of knives and razors in the village of Stannington, near Sheffield. He was then 28 years old, and, from the age of 13 in 1730, had been an apprentice to master cutler John Darwent of Stannington.
That “first George Wolstenholme” came of a formerly landed Saxon family of Lancashire. In the 15th century his ancestor, John Wolstenholme, had moved about five miles from Sheffield. Under Cromwell in the 1650s, the family had lost its estates. Several of the family’s members became farmers near Stannington. George Wolstenholme was the first of the family to become a cutler.
George trained his son, Henry, in the cutler’s trade. In 1757, Henry was granted the trademark SPRING and joined his father in business. Henry named his second son George, and apprenticed him about 1788 to a Sheffield cutler named John Mickelthwaite.
The second George gained the Freedom of the Cutler’s Company in 1799, and eventually succeeded to his father’s business. He relocated the firm to Sheffield proper, and by 1815 was occupying part of the steam-powered Rockingham Works.Thatwastheyearthatheshortenedhissurnameto Wostenholm.
His son, the third George Wolstenholme, had been born in 1800, and by 1824 was working for his father. He was entered a master cutler in 1826, and was granted the trademark I*XL (I Excel). This mark originally had been granted to another cutler in 1787.
In 1830, the Wostenholms arranged with William Stenton of Naylor & Sanderson, then the leading supplier of Sheffield cutlery to the U.S. market, to bring some of their I*XL cutlery to America.The venture proved so successful that the Wostenholms determined to devote all their efforts thenceforth to catering to the burgeoning American demand.
In 1832, father and son entered into partnership as “George Wostenholm & Son.” The second George died in 1833, leaving the third George in sole charge. In 1848, he relocated to the large and modern Washington Works.The Washington Works reflected Wostenholm’s dedication to making knives for Americans, as did his crossing the Atlantic 30 times to promote his wares. By the 1850s, I*XL was the most popular brand of cutlery in the United States.
The third George Wostenholm died in 1876. The firm continued to prosper until the 1890s. In 1891, 1897, 1901 and 1909, ever-steeper “protective” tariffs imposed by the United States virtually closed the American market to English cutlery, save at vastly inflated prices. The I*XL directors tried to shift their sales to other markets, such as Canada and Australia, but the markets were smaller and less prosperous than America’s. Besides, other competitors were already established in those markets.
[From Harold Bexfield, James Taylor, Geoffrey Tweedale, and Wostenholm manuscripts.]

Photography and Videography by Mitchell D. Cohen

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