Thread: London souvenir: Southern & Richardson

Took a desperately needed vacation to London with my wife, luckily it didn't take much convincing to go down to the Portobello Road Market. It's basically a couple blocks of antique malls on one side of the street and temporary vendors on the other.

It's sized 6/8 - 13/16+ from heel to tip, barbers notch, rattler grind. I've found a little about the manufacturer via internet...

Goins says the name was in business from 1846-1975

Member OWDTOM from BritishBlades:
In 1833 they were on Edward Street when the firm was known as Wilson & Southern.
by 1840 they were on Solly Street and Wheeldon Works.
In 1847 Wilson retired and Samuel Richardson joined up with Francis Southern so the name changed to S&R.
In 1851 they moved to the Don Cutlery Works, Doncaster Street (on Shalesmoor).
The corporate mark of a birds nest with three eggs dates from c.1880.
In 1912 S.G. Richardson was joined by Harold Willey and S&R was registered as a Limited Liability Company so any knives stamped 'LTD' have to be after that date.

So this razor is anywhere from 1847-1850 as the name "Southern & Richardson" and Wheeldon Works location stamp imply. My only other question on this would be who or what J. Penton is. Retail shop, personalized razor, who knows?

Corrosion is thick (especially on the tail) but hasn't been deep thus far. I think the scales aren't original as they look like plastic with an extremely fine texture to them and the tip of the blade also lightly contacts the wedge when closing.

Pics

Very nice, "portobello road london" sounds expensive.

You're right about that hipsley, I paid about double from what I usually like to fork out for a razor... but the seller wouldn't budge in negotiations and exchange rate maths is hard

Nice old razor.

I don't think the scales are plastic. They appear to have grain in your second pic and split at the pin.

You have the technology and talent for good close up pics, you might take some more of the scales and see what the rest of the guys think.

Originally Posted by Wullie

Nice old razor.

I don't think the scales are plastic. They appear to have grain in your second pic and split at the pin.

You have the technology and talent for good close up pics, you might take some more of the scales and see what the rest of the guys think.

+1. Those are horn with the collarless pins and all. Like Wullie said, you can see grain in the second pic. That is a nice one, I thought it was a frameback with a separate blade at first but it is one piece. Neat grind.

Nice razor!
I was searching for information about Southern & Richardson razors, and found this interesting piece on a fire that occurred at the foundry back in 1899.

Yesterday morning a terribly disastrous boiler explosion occurred at the works of Messrs Southern and Richardson, cutlery manufacturers, Doncaster Street, Sheffield.

BOILER DISASTER IN SHEFFIELD

Gives a bit if insight as to the conditions some of these craftsmen were under when they produced razors we still use today.

Ive got a southern and richardson somewheres in my huge stash of steel....ill have to dig it out

Dug a pic out of a post id made when I got mine....

In ivory, dirty...

Nice blade there Twisted. I've also got a Southern & Richardson; mine's marked as a "Shaveesi 5/8" and a fine little razor it is too. But not as nice as your rattler!

Beautiful souvenir of your trip. Love the blade shape. Enjoy!