John Eyre (c.1749-1834) was listed in 1774 as a table knife cutler in Smithfield, using the trade mark ‘EXTRA’.  He had moved to China [Cheney] Square by 1787, when he was also described as a merchant and factor.  In 1797, John Eyre & Co was listed in the local directory as a table knife maker at Coalpit Lane.   In 1805, he was appointed Master Cutler.   In 1818, Eyre registered a silver mark from Coalpit Lane.  Table cutlery remained the firm’s speciality in the 1820s, including ‘every description of silver desserts’.  By the end of that decade, Eyre was in partnership with James Smith under the style of Eyre & Smith.  This was dissolved in 1829, which probably marked Eyre’s retirement.  

The Coalpit Lane business and the ‘EXTRA’ mark continued as James Smith & Son (1833) and James Smith & Brother (1837).   However, in 1837 the firm failed and the stock and tools of this ‘old-established file and table knife business’ at the bottom of Coalpit Lane were auctioned.  John Eyre, The Priory, Sharrow Lane, died on 19 December 1834, aged 85.  He was buried in St Peter & St Paul churchyard.