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An Interesting Silver Penknife

WillFly
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WillFly Distinguished Member

WillFly

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A member of another watch forum was selling this silver penknife  - and I bought it on a whim. He'd originally bought it to use as a case opener but changed his mind - hardly looked at it, in fact. So - typical me - I bought it on whim, just because I liked the look of it. Just for a few quid.

 

Anyway, I got it this morning, cleaned it up with a silver cleaning cloth and took a good look at it with a loupe. It's hallmarked for Sheffield, 1947, and has the Sheffield City coat of arms engraved on one side. The other side had a signature engraved on it - "A.V. Alexander". So I idly looked up A.V. Alexander on Google - and discovered that a chap of that name was a Labour Co-operative peer, three times 1st Lord of The Admiralty, etc., etc. All about him here:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._V._Alexander,_1st_Earl_Alexander_of_Hillsborough

 

I thought - could he be the same man who's signature is on my knife? So I found an image of the actual signature of Earl Alexander of Hillsborough - and here are the two signatures (ignore the top name on the signature paper):

 

post-64-0-86001100-1410453148_thumb.jpg

post-64-0-96452000-1410453150_thumb.jpg

 

What fun! Presumably his personal property...

Edited by WillFly
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bobm12 Distinguished Member

bobm12

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Nice piece of history Will! I also collect knives but mine are just utilitarian, nice to handle...and pretty to look at! Not much of history in my collection. I use them mostly for the occasional hunting trip and others for cooking (also occasionally).

 

Do you think you can get a reward for yours?

Edited by bobm12
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