The pattern of this Sheffield-made table knife – with its soldered nickel-silver handle and  shear steel blade – was typical of the period before the advent of stainless steel (i.e. before the First World War).  James Farquharson & Sons was based at Hounsditch, London.  It had been established in 1850 by James Farquharson (1823-1904), who had been born at Dundee, Scotland.  He was a hardware merchant or fancy goods warehouseman, who dealt in Birmingham hardware and Sheffield cutlery.  In 1861, he employed four men and two boys; and twenty years later seven men and a woman.  ‘He was a man of strong character, to whom his religion [Presbyterian], his business, and his Liberalism were the absorbing interests of his life – every day of which he lived to the full’ (Hornsey & Finsbury Park Journal, 26 March 1904).   He lived at Heather Hill, the Park, Highgate, and died there on 21 March 1904, aged 80.  He was buried at Abney Park Cemetery.  His will was resworn at £27,068.  

The firm expanded considerably during the Victorian boom for cutlery and electro-plated goods.  In 1906, reports of a fire at Farquharson’s fancy goods warehouse at 61 to 64 Hounsditch (backing onto Camomile Street) described four-storey premises with 40-50 workers (London Evening Standard, 23 August 1906).  The partners included James’s sons: James Robert (1859-1948) and Peter (1861-1937).   In the interwar period, they continued to trade at Hounsditch as James Farquharson & Sons.  From 1919, the firm was also listed in Sheffield directories at 22 Rockingham Street, marketing stainless table knives and canteens of cutlery.   The trade mark was ‘LIFE’, formerly owned by Francis Townsend.  The Sheffield directory (1919) also showed that the Farquharsons had an interest in a Sheffield firm, Wraggs, which was listed as a spring-knife cutlers, 72 Arundel Street.  The partners in Wraggs were Peter Farquharson; James Farquharson (1886-1982), who was the son of James Robert; and Trevor Kingsley Hawkins (1892-1983), who had married Agnes Farquharson (the daughter of James Robert), and was manager of the Hounsditch warehouse.

The connection with Wraggs ended in the late 1920s, when Farquharson’s sold the business to Pinchbecks, who were another London hardware merchant.  Peter Farquharson died at Highgate on 21 December 1937, leaving a will resworn at £53,497.  James Robert was still running the Hounsditch business in 1939, assisted by his son, James.  T.  K. Hawkins, whose wife, Agnes, committed suicide in 1933, was still working as a hardware wholesaler in 1939.  The Second World War probably marked the end of the business.  James Robert died on 3 November 1948, leaving £26,656.  In the probate his son was described as a ‘retired warehouseman’.   Farquharson’s name and mark were listed by Whitham & Sykes (1953)¹ at 117 Fitzwilliam Street – the same address as J. W. Haigh.

¹ Whitham, J H, and Sykes, A, (eds) Register of Trade Marks of the Cutlers’ Company of Sheffield (London, 1953)