A very rare set of 8 cannon-handled silver table knives

each haft with a reeded swelling at the end above the small end-knop,

and with original crest for the family of Sandwith :

Out of a mural crown or a demi-lion rampant azure holding

in the dexter paw a fleur-de-lis or

The scimitar II polished steel blades marked :

 Bowden, beneath a crowned GR, c1820-30

(likely George Bowden, Broad Lane, Sheffield, table knife maker).

(For more on the heraldry, see posting below)

 
  (The use of crowned GR on cutlery blades came in with George IV, c1820,
and would indicate the maker having a Royal Warrant for their wares. 
From 1830-37, the blades would have been marked crowned WR, and so on).

 
There is an interesting notation on Bowden in an 1876 book by Leader and Sons:

“In the yard below St. Thomas’s street (Broad Lane), Mr. George Bowden had some workshops. 
He got up table-knives, and travelling on foot, he visited gentlemen’s houses and small country towns,
and on his return brought back buck horns.  He lived at Owlerton, and had a garden near what is now Hanover street. 
He died not long ago, at Ranmoor, where he had gone to reside.”

Note : To find a set of silver knives of this age is quite rare.
Also, it is not unusual for knives of the 17th century to lack a maker's mark.

Often, if marked, only one knife in an entire set would bear the maker's mark.

Condition : Excellent for age and usage; quite suitable condition for continued table use:
all marked with a very rubbed crowned leopard,
the outline of the punches denoting pre-Queen Anne Britannia standard (1680-1695;
the hafts remarkably free of splits and dents; two solder repairs noted (very slender and well done),
one shown below with the crests, immediately above the crowned leopard;
two blades with minor flaws, visible in images; the blades nicely polished

 
10” Long / 38.8 oz. Total Weight

SOLD
 

Please Inquire

#6950  

The crest as engraved upon this

Rare Set of Eight Charles II/William & Mary English Sterling Silver Cannon Handled Dinner Knives

by a presently unknown silversmith

dating to circa 1680-1695

(the blades are likely to have been made by George Bowden a knife cutler,

 of Sheffield in the County of Yorkshire)

is that of the family of Sandwith.

It may be blazoned as follows:

Crest:

Out of a mural crown or a demi-lion rampant azure holding

in the dexter paw a fleur-de-lis or

The Sandwith family had been seated at Newton Grange, Oswaldwick, near to Helmsley

 in the County of Yorkshire it is said from the third decade of the 16th Century

until the 18th Century.

It is recorded that a George Sandwith was in residence at Newton Grange

 during the reign of King Henry VIII.

Later members of the family settled at Barton-upon-Humber in the neighbouring County

of Lincolnshire to the south and some members further afield to

England’s region of East Anglia to make their home in the town of

 Bury St Edmunds and at Ixworth both in the County of Suffolk.
 

   There was also a member of the family, Susanna Sandwith, of Sawtrey Bouns

in the County of Huntingdonshire whose Will was dated the 13th October 1690

which was subsequently proved before the Prerogative Court of Canterbury

by Catherine Price alias Caton on the 7th December 1693.

Catherine was the executrix to Susanna’s Will.

Within the Admission Registers of one of London’s Inns of Court, that of Gray’s Inn
it is recorded that ‘Richard Sandwith, son and heir of Henry Sandwith,

of Burton-upon-Humber co. Lincoln gent’

was admitted as a member of the inn on the 23rd May 1629.

(Heraldry by John Tunesi, of Liongam, England)

Also See :

Click for a related article:

EARLY BRITISH TABLE SILVER : A SHORT HISTORY

and

   Early British Table Silver : A Catalog