By 1900 Harrison Brothers & Howson was one of the biggest cutlery firms in Sheffield. <\/p>\n
It started with Thomas Sansom, a silver plate worker at Norfolk Street, Sheffield, who registered his mark at the Sheffield assay office in 1808 and went on to form the firm of Thomas Sansom & Sons in partnership with his sons Abraham, John and William Sansom. George Howson, who was likely apprenticed as a cutler in 1803, later became a partner at Thomas Sansom & Sons . <\/p>\n
George died in 1847 and the business was acquired by the two Harrison brothers – James William and Henry together with George\u2019s son William Howson, forming Harrison Brothers and Howson.<\/p>\n
They took on different roles in the firm, with Henry Harrison moving to America to represent their interests there. Henry became a Master Cutler in 1862. William Howson became a traveller for the firm, but resigned from the partnership in 1875 and died in 1884. <\/p>\n
The Harrisons continued to expand the business achieving a Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria and later one from King Edward VIII. but by the end of the century most of the Harrisons had passed out of the business. <\/p>\n
The Howson family took over and George Howson (son of William) who had become a partner in 1875 became the leading light, making two world tours to promote their brand. He became a master cutler in 1893 and in 1896 the company registered a new silver mark \u2018GH\u2019 showing his influence. <\/p>\n
The company had offices in New York and San Francisco as well as show rooms in London. They started to use a coronet with the word \u2018ALPHA\u2019 as their corporate trademark. They also used the \u2018Stag\u2019s Head\u2019 mark of William Webster, a company they acquired in 1895. They went on to acquire Charles Ibbotson, the pocket-knife maker whose trademark was \u2018SLASH\u2019. By this stage they were considered amongst the top half dozen cutlery makers in Sheffield, employing around 600 workers in 1911. <\/p>\n
The Howson family continued to run the privately owned company, but it went into decline between the two world wars and was sold to Viners in 1959.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By 1900 Harrison Brothers & Howson was one of the biggest cutlery firms in Sheffield. It started with Thomas Sansom, a silver plate worker at Norfolk Street, Sheffield, who registered his mark at the Sheffield assay office in 1808 and went on to form the firm of Thomas Sansom & Sons in partnership with his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-makers-periods-styles-library"],"yoast_head":"\n