Pocket fruit knife by John Yeomans Cowlishaw of Sheffield, 1862

Description

Cowlishaw knives never needed advertising, the knives themselves were their own advertisement. Indeed only one Cowlishaw advertisement has ever been traced. However, the Cowlishaw story is quite tragic. Having established himself with an enviable reputation for making pocket fruit knives, John Yeomans Cowlishaw became depressed when his wife died in 1895 and he committed suicide soon afterwards. His son took over the business and continued trading until the outbreak of the First World War and the company continued trading under different supervision for quite some time afterwards. This example of a Cowlishaw knife measures 3 inches closed. It has lightly chamfered iridescent mother-of-pearl scales. The knife is made with fine brass liners, silvered bolsters and a tooled back bar sleeve and an oddly shaped and upside down inlaid cartouche engraved with the original owner’s initials “CEPS”. The silver spearpoint blade is hallmarked with the Sheffield crown, lion passant, date letter ‘U’ for 1862, the Queen Victoria head duty mark and the maker’s mark ‘JYC’. There is a slight curvature to the blade but the knife is otherwise in excellent condition.