This fruit knife has a silver blade stamped ‘W F’.  This presumably denotes William Fox, who registered these initials as a silver mark at Sheffield Assay Office in 1775.  He worked at Westbar, which may link him with the family involved with Fox & Norris.  William Fox was the son of Joshua Fox (who had been apprenticed to his father, another William).  Joshua became a Freeman in 1723.  It was said that in about 1750 Joshua became the first Sheffield manufacturer to open a direct trade to London.  ‘It was necessary to go on foot, and before starting he made his will and gave a large farewell party to his friends’ (Leader, 1876¹).  It seems that Joshua’s son, William (a Freeman in 1749), began as a razor maker.  He was listed in 1774 at Westbar, using the trade mark ‘FOX’, with a dagger symbol.  By 1787, he was manufacturing lancets, razors, and pen and pocket knives.   Examples of Fox’s silver fruit knives can be seen in Moore (2008)², who notes that this maker’s initials usually appeared sideways on the blade (as here).

William Fox, the ‘eminent cutler’, died on 10 December 1789.  His burial was at St Peter & St Paul.  He bequeathed £40 to local charities and Sunday schools (Sheffield Register, 18 December 1789, 8 January 1790).  His offspring included Joshua (bapt. 1758), Samuel (bapt. 1764), and Ann (bapt. 1766).  The brothers became Freemen in 1780 and 1789, respectively, after apprenticeship to their father.   Joshua used the mark ‘I. F-X’; Samuel’s was ‘W. FOX’.   Joshua then apparently withdrew or died (a cutler of that name  was buried at St Paul’s in 1800).  Certainly, Samuel joined his sister, Ann, and registered a silver mark ‘S F’ in 1793.  In the Sheffield directory in 1797, they were listed as pen and pocket knife manufacturers at Westbar.  Ann Fox was probably the ‘spinster’, who was buried at St Peter & St Paul in 1799.  In 1811, Samuel alone was listed as a cutler at Westbar.  He probably died in 1812 and was buried at St Paul’s.

^1. Robert E. Leader, Reminiscences of Old Sheffield (1876).

^2. Simon Moore, Pocket Fruit Knives (2008).