Le W HAWCROFT & SONS SHEFFIELD RENOWN est décrassé et prêt à raser, il promet celui-là.
The son of Isaac Hawcroft and Sarah Revitt, William Hawcroft was born around 1801 in Bradfield, effectively a suburb in the northwest of Sheffield. Not to be confused with the Bradfield near London, which now also incorporates the hamlet of Tutts Clump.
His early career is murky at best, but the Cutler’s Company of Hallmshire records an Isaac Hawcroft, grinder whose son William was apprenticed to William Revitt, that would most likely be Hawcroft’s maternal grandfather, and a major cutler. Revitt’s family went back a ways into the 1700’s. He owned the VIRGIL mark and one of his cousins owned HOMER, clearly fans of the classics. I’ll have more to say about Revitt in another post. If that’s the same William Hawcroft (and it seems fairly likely), his apprenticeship was complicated.
He began the apprenticeship in 1811 and was freed5 in… 1848? So maybe he had better things to do, like be a professional cutler. In any event, the Cutler’s Company lost its monopoly control of the industry in 1814 and anyone was allowed to strike a mark, not only freemen.
This is a useful place to explain a few things about the apprenticeship system in Sheffield. From very early on, the whole system was rigidly controlled (in theory) by the Cutler’s Company. There were regulations on how old apprentices must be when they started, how long their apprenticeship lasted, what they could do as apprentices and also how many apprentices a master could have. Until the late 1700’s a master could have one, single apprentice. This was often overlooked or fudged, and sometimes the children of the master were counted and sometimes they weren’t. But apprentices weren’t allowed to marry or have children. They weren’t allowed to strike their own marks. That sort of thing. In short, there were a lot of rules.
William Hawcroft and his wife (another) Ann had produced 5 children by the time of the 1841 census. Since he hadn’t technically completed his apprenticeship and wouldn’t for another seven years (the duration of a normal apprenticeship for a razorsmith!) it’s safe to say that William Hawcroft was not abiding particularly well by the ancient code of the Cutler’s Company.
William Hawcroft & Sons’ standard “Renown” razors are famed throughout the world as an article of pre-eminent excellence, being manufactured from the finest steel ever produced, and tempered by a secret process, imparting to the steel that degree of hardness, density and tenacity requisite to retain a perfect, fine and durable edge. Messrs. Hawcroft & Sons have been awarded the first prize medals of London and Paris, for excellence of quality of the “Renown” razors. Their steel erasers are also unexcelled.
William Hawcroft founded a new business with his sons, received several prestigious appointments and won awards for his cutlery. While Hawcroft’s business certainly fared well after the end of the partnership, his home life was not so fortunate.
In 1867 his wife died. She was 66 years old. The following year, the damndest thing happened8.
William Hawcroft was killed by a bull. Perhaps his umbrella9 startled them, but two bullocks being taken to the slaughterhouse knocked him down and one of them gored him in the head. He died two days later.
Hawcroft and his sons had also exhibited their razors in 1851 at the Great Exhibition in London where William and his sons presented another large display razor. That one was etched with images of Peace and Plenty. They held on to that prosperity for a while. His son, William J. Hawcroft, was still listed as a razor manufacturer in the 1901 census.
ce qui date le rasoir de 1874 à 1890, mais je pense plutôt qu'il date de la décennie 1870, les chasses cercueil y étaient encore à la mode.
Esthétiquement il présente des nuages dans l'acier. Il semble qu'il ait été remisé très longtemps, et pour le protégER l'ancien proprio l'avait recouvert d'une couche d'huile ou de graisse, résultat après 40 ans (ou bien plus) une patine noire uniforme, et à l'endroit ou la lame butte contre les chasse une réaction d'oxydation c'est produite laissant une cicatrice...
M’en fout je l'aime bien quand même !
https://coupechouclub.1fr1.net/t12238-william-hawcroft-and-sons
Sujet: Ah! pour une fois pas broucouille, il y a même de quoi faire baver ! 
Dim 20 Sep 2015 - 11:29
profitez les gars !
(cf le premier lot)!
de bien belles trouvailles 
