Medieval English Cutlery

[Bayleaf]

MEDIEVAL ENGLISH CUTLERY.

BY S. O. ADDY, M.A.

In the first five volumes of York wills and inventories published by Surtees Society knives of various kinds are mentioned, and particulars of these are given in the Appendix. They are sufficiently numerous and interesting to warrant an examination of their character, especially as descriptions of old knives are rarely to be found.

It is necessary to bear in mind that during the time embraced by these documents (1315-1531) and long afterwards there was no such thing as a pocket-knife. The first instance of such a knife which the New English Dictionary can quote is of the year 1727.

Both men and women carried their knives, not in their pockets, if indeed they had any, but usually in sheaths hanging from a girdle which went round the body just above the hips. It was the business of the girdler, as he was called, to supply these girdles, and we shall see that in the inventory of a York girdler, dated 1439, there were many cheap girdles and knives.

There were few table-knives, and when at table nearly everybody used a knife of his own. In 1392 a lady bequeathed "my knife which I use," probably her meat-knife. Even in the last century, in taverns, in many countries, particularly in some towns of France, knives were not placed on the table, because it was expected that each person should have one of his own. But as no person would any longer eat without forks, landlords were expected to furnish these, together with plates and spoons.[1]

Again, among the Scotch Highlanders, as Dr. Johnson asserts, knives had only been introduced at table since the time of the Revolution. Before that period every man had a knife of his own as a companion to his dirk or dagger. The men cut the meat into small morsels for the women, who put them into their mouths with their fingers.[2]

In Sewel's English and Dutch Dictionary, 1708, we have, under the word "knife," "a little Knife, a Butchers-Knife, A Chopping-Knife, a Pen-Knife, a Pruning-Knife, a Wood-Knife," but no table-knife. More kinds of knives are mentioned in Hexham's Dutch Dictionary, 1675, but no table-knife.

To go a century farther back, we have in John Baret's Alvearie, 1580, "A meate knife: a whittle. Cultellus." In a book of instructions on manners, written about 1475, youths are advised, when a meal is over, to clean their knives and put them up "where they ought to be."[3] Evidently the place where they ought to be was the sheath.

In 1664 Cotton, writing in his Scarronides, p: 37, says "they rise and wipe their greasy thwittles." In the thirteenth century, John de Garlande says : "I see a huckster with table-knives (cultellos ad mensam) before him, carving-knives (mensaculos or trencher knyvys) and penknives (artavos), sheaths small and great, and styles for writing.[4]

In 1492 a York will contains a bequest of "a pair of large knives for the tables of gentlemen." These were probably carving knives. De Garlande's table-knives are the meat-knives which each person carried about with him. In The Boke of Keruynge, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1513, the butler is told to see that the "table knyues be fayre pullysshed."[5] These were carving knives.

When Adam Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations, went to Balliol in 1740 he found that the knives "were chained to the common board."[6]

THE MATERIALS OF KNIVES.

Steel, or iron edged with steel, was the material commonly used. In 1404 we are told in the York wills of a knife made of ayser, that is steel, as if it were something unusual, and as if most knives were only edged with steel.

In 1428 a pair of silver knives is mentioned. These may have been used for cutting cheese, butter, or fruit.

In 1440 we have a bequest of a pair of silver-gilt knives, with a pen-case and an inkhorn of the same material.

In 1476 John Hurte, vicar of Nottingham, who had a valuable library, bequeathed to his nephew his silver girdle and the silver knives which had belonged to his (the testator's) father.

In the inventory of a York chapman, dated 1446, we have five pairs of bone knives, valued at two shillings.

Columella, a Roman writer on agriculture, who lived in the first century of our era, speaks (xii.14 ) of dividing apples and pears by a bone knife (osseo cultello).

In 1435 a rector, who had been vicar of Chesterfield, bequeathed "two cipres knives." These must have been made of cypress wood, and regarded as of some value. "The wood of the cypress is yellow or reddish, and has a pleasant smell. It is very hard, compact, and durable : the ancients reckoned it indestructible."' [7]

Robert Laneham's Letter of 1575 mentions "a payr of capped Sheffeld kniues,"[8] What were "capped knives"?

HANDLES.

The wills mention two kinds of wood used for the handles of knives: These were maser, called murrus in Late Latin, and dudgeon. The maser was the common maple (acer campestre), a small tree which is a native of Britain. Its hard and compact wood is much used by turners for carved work, and as a substitute for box-wood. It was highly esteemed for its veined and mottled appearance. In 1439 some maser handles are valued at a penny each, which was equivalent to at least a shilling of our money.

Though the meaning is not entirely free from doubt, it is virtually certain that dudgeon is the root of the box-tree, which is curiously marked. As Prof. Skeat observes, in Arnold's Chronicle, dated 1502; a cutler speaks of the ivory, dogeon, horn, and maple which belonged to his craft. One of the articles of the London Cutlers, dated 1380, provided that no handle of wood, except digeon, shall be coloured.[9]

In 1392 we have a razor with an ivory handle.

In 1443 we have pair of knives with an ivory handle; as if there were only one handle for both.

In 1415 we have a pair of knives of black and white, with the arms of Bretan. It is not certain what these handles were; they may, or may not, have been of ebony and ivory.

In 1508 four knives with black handles are valued at two shillings.

In 1415 a bequest is made to a chaplain of a pair of knives with handles of jet gilded on the sides and on the head (or top of the handle). In the same year we have a bequest of knives with handles of "cokyll." This seems to be black Tourmaline, which English miners called cockle, for which the earliest quotation in the New English Dictionary is 1761. Another material, of which one example occurs, is Green Serpentine, of which vases and boxes are still made. In 1490 a handle of this substance was valued at a penny. Serpentine is spotted and veined, and in appearance like a serpent's skin.

A CUTLER'S SHOP IN 1473.

Here, is an extract from the will of John Amell the elder, citizen nd cotteler of London, dated 18 August, 1473 :-

"I bequethe to the sayde John Amyll my cosyne, all my stuf beyng in my shoppe, that is to saye, yuery, dogeon, horn, mapyll, and the toeI yt belongeth to my crafte, as saues, anfeldis, hameres, rapis, filis, and other to werke tivythal,' and x boxis bein in my shoppe to lay his wares in, all my wares redy wroughte excepted."[10]

"Anfeldis" are anvils, and "rapis" are rough files. We learn that this cutler used four kinds of material for making his handles. He did not make blades or sheaths, and was really a hafter. He seems to have been a prosperous man.

DAMASCENING OR DAMASKING.

Some of the knives bequeathed by the York wills were decorated with silver, and gilded, or "harnessed" with silver. And even when they are not so described, it is not likely that plain knives would have been bequeathed; they must have been decorated with gold or silver, or equipped with carved handles.

For instance, a short inventory of the Yorkshire goods of William Lord Furnivall, who died in 1383, includes three knives (cultelli) valued at ten shillings. They are enumerated among jewels, silver spoons, and silver plate. What was the value, in our currency, of these three knives?

In 1379 red wine was sold at 4d. a gallon (Chronicon Preciosum) so that the knives would have been worth about thirty gallons of red wine. Lord Furnivall had large estates in Hallamshire, but lived in Furnivall's Inn, Holborn - his town house. We cannot tell whether the knives were made in London or Hallamshire, but we know that they formed part of Lord Furnivall's Hallamshire goods. No doubt they were decorated knives.

Knives inlaid or encrusted with gold and silver were said to have been damascened or damasked. The art of thus ornamenting them was brought over by the crusaders from Damascus, as were damson plums and the figured cloth called damask, but ultimately it came from Persia.

The incrustation of objects of steel and iron with gold, and more rarely with silver, is extensively practised in India as well as Persia. "The design to be worked out is undercut in the metal, into this the gold or silver wire is laid, and the scarp edge is beaten down with a hammer, thus securing the wire in its position. Another method consists in scratching the surface, and beating into the scratched lines the gold or silver wire, after which the whole - surface is burnished to remove the incisions."[11]

The English-Latin dictionary called Catholicon Anglicum, written by Thomas Swyft, vicar of Ecclesfield, who died in 1478,[12] contains the words "Golde wyre". It is rendered in Latin as Filum Aureum, which really means gold thread, there being no equivalent for "gold wire" in classical Latinity. Neither the Promptorium Parvulorum of 1440, nor any of the old English-Latin vocabularies mention gold wire.

But if the damasking of knives was practised in Hallamshire in his time, it is exceedingly likely that the author of the Catholicon, who has recorded so many words relating to cutlery, would also include "gold wire." Thus we seem to have another proof, if any were needed, of the Hallamshire origin of this valuable work.

If we may judge from the quotations in the New English Dictionary; the word "damascening" was not used in literature before the sixteenth century; "damasken work or goldsmiths work" is found in 1551. But the York wills show that "damasken work" was applied to knives at least as early as 1430, though, it is not described by that name.

Gold wire was obtained from goldsmiths, or gold refiners, and The Poll Tax Returns for the West Riding prove that there was a goldsmith at Doncaster in 1379. There was a Thomas Goldesmyth at Rotherham early in the fifteenth century.[13]

The extant ordinances of the Cutlers' Company of Hallamshire are not earlier than 1565, though they are then described as ancient. The cutlers were then associated with the manorial court, but had ,their own jury. In 1614 a man was fined 40s. "for damasking of lowe priced kniues with silver wire," contrary to an article which has not been preserved.[14]

A year after the incorporation of the Company in 1624 these two ordinances were made, namely (10) "No gold or silver to be put on the blades, bolsters, or hafts of any knives except such as be worth or sold for five shillings the dozen, on pain of 20s. (11) None to damaske, inlay, or studd [encrust] any knives or wares, or intermix the same with any pewter, tin, lead, brass, or other counterfeit stuff, whereby any ignorant man may be induced to take the same to be silver or gold, on pain of 20s."[15]

Clearly this was the kind of decoration which had been applied to the knives of the York wills.

THE THWITTLE (OR WHITTLE).

The "scheffeld thwitel" which Chaucer's Miller of Trumpington bore in his hose has been misunderstood. It has been regarded as dirk or dagger which he wore in his stocking, and it has been ignorantly called "a poor (rude) implement." It was in fact his meat-knife, carried in a sheath attached to the waistband of his hose.

For Cotgrave defines the French ceincture as "a girdle; also, the wast-band of a hose or doublet."

In the York wills the thwittle is only mentioned twice. Thus in 1374 we are told of a knife with a maple handle, "in English thwetyll."

In an undated inventory of a Beverley mason about 1440, we have "three knives called thwetill, with handles of (blank) decorated with silver." A "thwittle" is merely an old word a knife; it does not refer to a particular kind of knife.

In a letter from Handsworth, near Sheffield, in 1589, to his friend Lord Burghley, the Earl of Shrewsbury says "Your L[ordship] shall receave a case of Hallomshire whittells, being such fruictes as my pore cuntrey affordeth with fame throughout this realm."[16]

Here we are told that Hallamshire thwittles, as they were also called, were famous throughout England, and we may be sure that the Earl would take care that his present was of the best kind. The blades of these thwittles were probably damascened, or inlaid with gold.

THE PENKNIFE.

At this very time Sheffield was renowned for its penknives. Peter Bales in his Writing Schoolemaster, 1590, has a chapter on the choice of a penknife in which he says : "First therefore for the choyce of your penknife, a right Sheffeild knife is best : a good Razor is next, being not too thicke or too thinne grounded." Lower down he turns it into verse :

Provide a good knife; right Sheffeild is best.

A razor is next, excelling the rest.

From such an authority this is the highest praise. Peter Bales, who was born in 1547 spent some years at Gloucester Hall, Oxford, and became a penman, or writing-master, in London. Lowndes calls him a "celebrated person." In addition to other feats, it is said of him that he "wrote out the entire Bible in shorthand so small that it could be enclosed in an ordinary walnut-shell."

There is no copy of The Writing Schoolemaster in the British Museum, and I am indebted to Mr. F. R. D. Needham of the Bodleian for kindly making an extract from the copy in that library. These penknives were provided with sheaths.

The earliest dated quotation of the word "penknife" which the New English Dictionary can give is from the Medulla of 1468, which the Dictionary dates as c. 1450.[17]

This Latin-English Dictionary, like the Catholicon of 1483, was written by Thomas Swyft, vicar of Ecclesfield.[18]

The word is also in the vocabulary of the Catholicon. Hence it is possible that the penknife for which Sheffield was famous in 1590 was made in that town and neighbourhood a century at least before.

There is another quotation of "penknife" in the Dictionary, taken from an undated vocabulary of the fifteenth century.

Every Hallamshire man has heard of the Sheffield thwittle which Chaucer's Miller of Trumpington wore in his hose, or, as we should have said, in the belt of his trousers. But the poet comes before us in another way. "All the portraits of Chaucer," said Sir Henry Ellis in 1849, "give him a knife hanging at his breast."

The earliest and best of these is that which after the poet's death was painted for his affectionate disciple Thomas Hoccleve, and is in a copy of the latter's Regement of Princes.[19]

This small half-length portrait depicts an old man with white hair, wearing a black, or blackish, gown and a black cap. Hanging from the gown on the right side is a narrow scarlet ribbon, to which a black sheath, blacker than the gown itself, is attached. The sheath is rather like a modern spectacle case, except that it tapers downwards. At the top of the sheath is a white ball-like object, surrounded by what appears to be a circle of jewels. This ball-like object may be the top of an ivory knife-handle. The sheath could only have held a small knife.

There is a full-length portrait in a copy of the Canterbury Tales, drawn about twenty years after the poet's death.[20] Here too the sheath of a knife is attached to the gown, but it is very small, as the portrait itself is. At the top of the sheath is again a small white ball-like object, surrounded by what appeared to my wife to be about five jewels. My eyes were not good enough to see them myself. We examined the two portraits together.

It does not seem likely that the sheath of a meat-knife would be attached by a ribbon to a scholar's gown; it is more likely that such knife would be attached to a girdle worn under the gown.

PAIRS OF KNIVES.

In the York wills and other documents we often read of a pair knives, and we shall see that wedding-knives were two in number and no more. But, in the Middle English period, as Skeat shows, the word "pair" applied to any number of like or equal things, and was not limited, as now, to two only. In the York wills, for instance, “a pair of beads" is often mentioned, and means a set of beads, a rosary. And so Ben Jonson speaks of "a pair of cards" when he means a pack of cards. We need not multiply examples.

Knowing this fact, we cannot always be sure whether "a pair of knives" in our documents means a couple or a set. There are knives and forks in

South Kensington Museum which stand upright in cases, like flowers in vases, only the tops of the carved handles being visible. They are not so early as the pairs of knives of the York wills, but it is probable that some of these so-called pairs were sets of knives in cases.

It is remarkable that a pair of knives (duo cultelli) could be rendered as a yearly service or chief rent to the King. In 1273 the Shropshire portion of the Hundred Rolls has this passage:

"Nicholas de la More tenet unam virgatam terrae in eadem villa per serjanciam defferendi ij cultellos ad Scaccariam domini Regis ad festum Sancti Michaelis quolibet anno ita quod debet cindere unam virgam coruli cum uno cultello ita quod cultellus cum ictu debet plicare et iterum debet cindere unam virgam cum alio cultello"-Rot: Hundr: ii; 108a.

Here we have two knives, one of them so delicately made as to double up under the thrust required to cut a hazel rod, and the other which could cut the rod without bending. In other words, we have a weak blade and a strong.

In another passage, also relating to a virgate of land, the weak blade was to be so fragile that it would double up in a fresh cheese (ii, 82a). The hazel rod (virga) in both passages seems to have been intended to keep in remembrance the fact that the holding consisted of a virgate (virgata) of land. What kind of a blade it was that would double up in a fresh cheese it is not easy to say.

At all events we see here that knives went in couples. In our modern pocket-knives a larger and a smaller blade are all that is usually required. But these knives were in sheaths.

WEDDING-KNIVES.

In the play called The Raigne of King Edward the Third, first printed in 1596 the Countess of Salisbury turns suddenly upon the King, and "showing a dagger”, says:

Hard by my side doth hang my wedding knives:

Take thou the one, and with it kill thy Oueene,

And learne by me to find her where she lies;

And with the other Ile dispatch my loue,

Which now lies fast a sleep within my hart.

Act . ii, sc. 2.

Here the Countess wore two knives on her girdle. "Strange as it may appear," says Brand, "it is however certain, that knives were formerly part of the accoutrements of a bride. This perhaps will not be difficult to account for, if we consider that it anciently formed part of the dress for women to wear a knife or knives sheathed and suspended from their girdles; a finer and more ornamental pair of which would very naturally be either purchased or presented on the occasion of a marriage."

In the Witch of Edmonton, 1658, p. 21, Somerton says: "But see, the bridegroom and bride come; the new pair of Sheffield knives fitted both to one sheath." A bride says to her jealous husband, in Dekker’s Match me in London, 1631: See at my girdle hang my wedding knives, With those dispatch me.[21]

From other references to wedding-knives it appears that they were always two in number. In 1796 Francis Douce laid before the Society of Antiquaries certain "ornaments of female dress" which were presented to him by an old lady in whose family they had always remained. "They consist," he said, "of a purse, a pincushion, and a pair of knives." The date 1610 occurs upon both the handles. "The materials of these articles [i.e., the sheaths] consist of purple velvet embroidered with gold. The handle of one of the knives is of amber; that of the other of a reddish coloured glass. They were all suspended together at the girdle."[22]

There are two engravings, one of a knife, the other of a sheath. The knife resembles a modern table-knife, sharpened on one side, but the point is rather more acute. The lower part of the handle is highly ornamented; two tassels are attached to the sheath.

THOMAS FULLER ON YORKSHIRE KNIVES:

Writing of Yorkshire knives in 1662, Thomas Fuller says: "These are the teeth of old men, and usefull to those of all ages; for, though some think themselves Gentlemen with Knives, as good as they conceive themselves scarce Men without them, so necessary are they on all occasions. The most part of those for common use of Countreypeople are made in this County, whereof the bluntest, with a sharp stomack, will serve to cut meat if before them. Sheffeild, a remarkable Market, is the staple Town for this Commodity, and so hath been these three hundred years; witness Chaucer, speaking of the accoutrements the Miller, A Sheffeld whitel bore he in his hose.

One may justly wonder how a knife may be sold for one penney, three trades anciently distinct concurring thereunto, Bladers, Haft-makers, and Sheath-makers, all since united into the Corporation of Cutlers. Nor must we forget that though plain Knife-making was very ancient in this County, yet Thomas Mathews was the first Englishman who quinto Elizabethae [1562] made fine Knives, and procured a prohibi¬tion that no more Ships-lading of` Hafts should be brought from beyond the Seas:"[23]

The importation of knives had been forbidden in 1463, but it is not certain that the word "knives" included hafts. Fine Knives were made in Sheffield before 1562, and Fuller's statement has no foundation, as the History of the London Cutlers' Company shows.

PENNYWARE, OR CHEAP KNIVES.

In the inventory of a York girdler, dated 1439, the values are given both of knives and pairs of knives. Twelve dozen knives called pennyware are valued at four shillings, or three farthings each. Two dozen pairs of knives are worth four shillings and ninepence, the odd pence showing that they were of different values. These were worth, on the average, a little more than twopence a pair. Three pairs of knives decorated with silver are worth one shilling and eightpence, or a little less than sevenpence each.

It may be that these pairs of knives were couples of knives in one sheath. The French had a proverb about one Jean Colot "who ordinarily wore about him three knives in one sheath." (Cotgrave).

In the inventory of a York tradesman, without date, but between 1493 and 1508, three dozen "sawtow" of halfpenny knives are worth eightpence. Sixty-five knives of pennyware are valued at two shillings and eightpence, or about a halfpenny each. Sixteen pairs of knives are valued at twelve pence, or three farthings each.

As regards the value of money, a goose in 1440 was worth threepence. In 1504 wheat was worth five shillings and eightpence a quarter.[24]

In the first half of the nineteenth century cheap knives called flatbacks were made in Hallamshire, and Abel Bywater has a song about them in which he makes the poor workmen say-

A baskitful for a shillin'

To mak em we are willin'.

It is probable that some knives were toys. The French cousteau pargoys meant "a sorie knife for a little child" (Cotgrave).

FORKS AND SPOONS.

We can hardly think of table-knives without thinking of forks and spoons. But forks are not mentioned in the York wills, and were not used before the seventeenth century. There are indeed one or two instances of small forks used for domestic purposes, but not as the accompaniment of table-knives.

Thus in one of the Bury wills (Camden Society) there is a bequest in 1463 of a "silver forke for grene gyngour" (p. 40), and in the same wills there is in 1554 a bequest of a "spone with a forke in the end" (p. 147).

To put your fingers into a jar of green ginger and take a chunk out is not nice, but fingers came before forks and spoons. We may see the old custom in the lines about Little Jack Horner and his Christmas pie:

He put in his thumb

And pulled out a plum,

And said `What a good boy am I

In these days his mother would have said he was a bad boy. These lines are found in the comedy called Gammer Gurton's Needle, which is known to have existed in 1551.

Forks, then, were not used for putting food into the mouth, but for keeping the fingers out of the dish, and at first they consisted of two long prongs, like tuning-forks, and I have seen Sheffield table forks with very long prongs.

In 1608 Thomas Coryat had travelled for five months through France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and a part of Germany, and in 1611 he published an account of what he had seen. "The Italians," he said, "do always at their meals use a little fork when they cut their meat. For while with their knife which they hold in one hand they cut the meat out of the dish, they fasten their fork, which they hold in the other hand, upon the same dish; so that whoever he be that sitting in in the company of any others at meal, should unadvisedly touch the dish of meat with his fingers from which all at the table do cut, he will give occasion of offence to the company. . . This form of feeding I understand is generally used in all places of Italy; their forks being for the most art made of iron or steel, and some of silver, but those are used only by gentlemen."[25]

The use of forks was at first much ridiculed in England, though they were only intended to prevent people from putting their fingers in the common dish. Even when they began to employ the fork for putting meat into the mouth, it was long before the practice became general.

Up to the end of the eighteenth century, and later, it was not regarded as boorish to put the knife in the mouth, and sixty years ago I knew an old Cambridge don who always did it.

Spoons were in very early use. A bone spoon, of splendid workmanship, highly polished and delicately made has been found in some Roman remains at Folkstone. The bowl is just under an inch across, and the handle is 2¼ inches long. The spoon was used for eating eggs, and the handle end for picking out snails, which the Romans ate.[26] Some Neolithic spoons have been found in Sussex.[27]

KNIVES IN THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM,

No catalogue of this fine collection has been published; it is exhibited under glass cases, and each object has a descriptive label.

There is a set of fourteen knives, dated 1607, the blades damascened at the neck, the handles of carved and jewelled ivory, representing English monarchs from Henry I to James I. On the blade is a trade mark consisting of a diamond with a dagger beneath it. On the 29th of January, 1606-7 the mark of a diamond and dagger was assigned to Thomas Sharford.[28]

A steel knife with ivory handle is carved with a full-length representation of a lady in the costume of the period of Charles II. The silver ferrule is engraved "Anne Doyly." The length is 8⅝ inches.

An English knife handle of ivory is carved with a full-length representation of a lady in the costume of the period of Charles II, carrying a child in swaddling clothes. It is dated 1687, and the silver ferrule is engraved "M. Froman." The length is 3â…› inches.

There is a steel knife and fork, with silver-mounted ivory handles, inlaid with silver wire and coloured composition. The blade is inscribed "Richard Rider, december ye 9th 1698." -These were from a sale at Markington Hall, York.

There is a beautiful case containing six knives and a fork. It is of ivory inlaid with silver wire, red lacquer, and green stained ivory. The knives and fork are of steel with silver handles; the maker's initials are R.S. These are English of the second half of the seventeenth century. The knives and fork are very small, and the knives are not pointed or rounded at the ends, but are flat. It is remarkable that there should only be one fork. The knives and fork stand upright, in the case, which is not unlike a pepper box.

We may compare the last-mentioned case with an undated set of German knives and forks with carved ivory handles. They stand upright in a stamped leather case, only the tops of the handles being visible. There are thirteen knives and thirteen forks, as if intended for that number of guests. The handles are exquisitely carved with figures of different animals. The knives are pointed, and the forks have each two long prongs.

The carved ivory handles of some Italian knives and forks are very beautiful, and no verbal description could do justice to them. One knife is very remarkable. Its handle is of ebony, ivory, and brass, and the 'blade is etched with the first tenor part of graces to be sung before and after meat. It is of the sixteenth century; and on the blade are these words :

Gratiarum actio. Tenor.

Pro tuis deus beneficiis gratias agimus tibi.

The other side of the blade was not examined, nor is the music given here. In early church music the tenor part was the melody.

There seem to be no English knives in the Museum of so early a date as the sixteenth century, nor is any light thrown on the question of "pairs of knives," except that there are knives in cases.

Nor is light thrown on Shakespeare's lines :

For all the world like cutlers' poetry

Upon a knife `Love me and leave me not.' Merchant of Venice, v, l, 149.

In this collection is a pair of small English scissors, with pierced and engraved steel blades, and silver handles. They are of the seventeenth century, and much ornamented.

There is also an English case for a pair of scissors belonging to the same century. It is small, and beautifully ornamented. Scissors were in early use, and an old English Vocabulary of the tenth century mentions hair-cutting scissors (feax-sceara).

In a York will, dated 1373 a tailor speaks of his scissors of his scissors (forpices).

In the inventory of a York, girdler, 1439, six pairs of scissors are valued at two shillings.

HALLAMSHIRE CUTLERY.

We are justified in maintaining that during the period embraced by the York wills Sheffield was the only English town, except London, which had a reputation for cutlery. There were other English towns where knives were made, but the fame which Hallamshire was known to possess in the sixteenth century had not sprung up anew in that age.

The wills mention a Dijon knife, a Flanders knife, and also Doncaster knives (which may have been Sheffield knives sold in the larger town of Doncaster), but we should not expect Yorkshiremen to mention Sheffield knives, or London knives, in their wills.

Some may wonder at the fewness of Hallamshire cutlers in the Poll Tax Returns of 1379. But they should remember that the cutler was not the man who made either the blade, the haft, or the sheath. He was the man who put these parts together, and sold the finished product in his shop or warehouse.

Let us not forget that the knife is the most important of all instruments for without it there could have been no civilization I was astonished the other day at seeing a printed photograph of a two-edged iron knife found within the last few years in the Lake Village at Glastonbury. One edge of the blade was sharpened for ordinary cutting purposes; the other edge was a saw. The wooden handle was as delicately carved and finished as that of any modern joiner's tool. And yet the knife was forged before the Roman occupation by a people who made a peculiar and beautiful kind of pottery unknown elsewhere.[29]

With such antecedents we need not doubt that we have had in Great Britain a native manufacture of knives of early date and long continuance. In that manufacture Hallamshire became prominent. At what time it became prominent we do not know. We only know that its knives were famous in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The only hope of tracing their history farther back which occurs to me lies in an exploration of the lake village between Holmesfield and Baslow, but that would not bridge over the medieval period even though knives should be found.

I regret that I have been unable to make use of the important collection of old knives, &c., known as the Bragge collection, in the Weston Park Museum, given by William Bragge (1823-1884). In 1880 Mr. Bragge published a catalogue called Bibliotheca Nicotiana of his vast collection of tobacco-pipes. But he did not, I think, print a catalogue of his old knives.

APPENDIX.

MEDIEVAL ENGLISH CUTLERY IN YORK WILLS.

List of Knives, with the date, page, and volume of the will.

1349. Unum culteilum-i.59.

1374. Unum cultellum cum manubrio de murro, anglice thwetyll-i.92. 1383. iij cultelli, xs-i.125.

1392Unum cultellum-i.173.

1392. Item lego Ricardo de Knapton, capellano, j parvum cu1te11um¬i.174.

1392.j baslard cum manubrio murreo, j cultetlum cum manubrio murreo -i.177.

1392. Cultellum meum quo utor-i.182.

1392. j razur habens manubrium de ebore-i.182.

1393.In the will of a tailor. Forpices meas-i.194.

1394. Ove un cutell que jeo soley porter pour le boys-i.199. 1397. Spatulam meam cum omnibus cultellis meis-i.219.

1400. Lego Johanni Bolron, capellano, j cultellum de Dyjhon cum argento paratum-i.269.

1400. j cultello pro drissing lardarii-iii.l5.

No date, but about 1400. Item iij cultellae vocatae thwetill, cum manubriis de arg. ornat. . . . . Item j manubrium vocatum j ballokheft-iii.97.

1402, j par cultellorum-i.291.

1403. Meum wodeknyf-i.328.

1404.j cultellum de ayser-i.331.

1415. Item Johanni Wyles, capellano, unum par culteIlorum cum manubriis de gete deauratis per latera, et in capite-i.383.

1415. j par cultellorum de albo et nigro cum armis de Britan-i.381. 1415. Unum par cuitellorum cum manubriis de cokyll-i.385.

1423.Et de viij.d receptis pro uno dryssyng-knyff veteri--iii.80.

1428.Unum par cultellorum argenti-i.414.

1430. Cum j pari cultellorum argento ornatorum et deauratorum-ii.8. 1431. Par cultellorum cum manubrio de masserr' et argentato-ii.34. 1434. Unum par cultellorum harrenest cum argento-ii.37.

1435. Unum par cultellorum argento paratorum et deauratorum-ii.45. 1435. Duos cultellos de cipres-ii.52.

1349. In the shop of a York girdler. De j groc' cultellorum dictorum penyware iiij.s De ij doss. paribus cultellorum iiij.s ix.d De iii doss. paribus cultellorum v.s De vj paribus cultellorum harnesiat' cum auricalco xvj.d- De xvij paribus cultellorum harnisiat' iiij.s De iij paribus cultellorum arg. harnisiat xx.d De j doss. cultellorum dict. penyware x.d De ij daggars ix.d De j daggar cum manubrio de dogeon xij.d De j daggar de Flaundr' iij.d De j daggar harnisiat' x.d De iij manubriis de maser iij.d .... De vj,paribus forpicum ij.s

1440. Unum par cultellorum argenti et deauratorum, cum uno pennario et cum cornu insimili-ii.79.

1442. Meliorem cultellum meum argento hernasiatum-ii.85.

1443. IInum par cultellorum cum manubrio de evire.... par cultellorum cum manubrio de dugion-ii:88:

1446.In the inventory of a York chapman, or merchant. De v pare

cultellorum de osse, ij.s De v pare Doncaster knyfes ija xj.d De zij pare de Doncaster knyfes, xij.d - iii.103.

1448.De ij cultellis vocatis lecheyng-knyves, iiij.d-iii.ll2.

1472.j par cultellorum cum rubia vagina-iii.202.

1476. Cultellos meos argenteos qui fuerunt patris mei-iii.221.

1490. De j lez heft cultelli de lez greyn cerpentyn j.d-iv.59.

1492. j par de magnis cultellis pro tabulis magnatum-iv.82:

1493.shafing knyfe (In the will of a York founderer)-iv.88.

No date. In the inventory of a York tradesman. Item iij dosan sawtow

of hawpeny knyffes viij:d Item v dosan and v knyfes of peny

wayr ij.s viij.d Item xvj payr of ltnyfes xij'.d-iv:191.

1508. De ij.s pro iiij cultellis cum nigris manubriis: De ij.s pro iiij lez chypping knyffes-iv.287.

1508. De iij.d pro ij chopping cultellis-iv.291.

1508.Dressing and leching knyves to the valour of xv.d-iv.312.

1508-9. In the will of a York chandler and barber we have : To Robert Parkyn my prentes a razour bage with vj rasours, a pare of scissours, etc.-iv.336.

1516. My long rydyng knyffe-v.75.

1528. My wodknyf-v.267.

Notes

1. Beckmann's History of Inventions, Bohn, 1846, ii, p. 413.

2.Op. cit.

3. Furnivall's Early English Meals and Manners, p. 257.

4.Wright's Vocabularies,. ii, p. 123.

5. Early English Meals and Manners, p: 152.

6. H. D. Traill's Social England, iii, 554

7. Chambers's Encyclopaedia.

8. Ed. 1871, P. 38.

9. R.E. Leader's Cutlers' Company, ii, 5.

10. Richard Arnold's Chronicle, 1502; ed, 1811, pp, 243.245,

11. Chambers's Encyclopaedia, 1901.

12. H.A.S., Transactions ii,301-16.

13. Hall and Thomas, Descriptive Catalogue, .1914, p.21.

14. Leader, op. cit., ii, 5.

15. Leader, op. cit., ii, 9.

16. Lodge's Illustrations of British History; 1791, ii, 414

17. See the note in the Catholicon Anglicum, p. 50.

18. H.A.S. Transactions, ii., 301-316.

19. Harleian MS. 4866.

20. Lansdowne MS.851

21.Brand's Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, ed. By Sir H. Ellis, 1849, ii, p.131.

22. Archaelogia, xii, 215-16

23. Worthies of England, ed.1811,ii,492

24. Fleetwood's Chronicon Preciosum, 1707.

25. Beckmann's History of Inventions, ii, p. 412.

26. Times; 29Aug.1924.

27. Sussex Archaeological Collections, lxi, 65.

28 Charles Welch's History of the London Cutlers’ Company, 1916-23, ii, 26:

29. Bulleid and Gray, The Glastonbury Lake Village, 2 vols

[RichardB]

A great read, Thank you Bayleaf, great work you do.