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The Merrin Collection
A small closed pocket knife with yellowed bone handles and brass ends, one blade half open, on grey paper.

The workshop

Pocket knife, bone handle

Carried by three grinders in turn, each scratching in his initials.

Made by
Merrin & Sons, Tenter Lane
Date
About 1900
Material
Steel, bone, brass
Size
8 cm closed
Cost new
A shilling (staff price, fourpence)
Came from
Found under the hull floor, 2012

On view The workshop, on the grinders’ bench. Ground floor, the old grinding hull.

Found under the floorboards of the grinding hull when the building was repaired in 2012. The works sold pocket knives to its own grinders at a third of the shop price, and this one has three different sets of initials scratched into the bone.

We have traced two of them in the wage books: a W. Hollis, who started in 1897, and an E. Platt, who left for the army in 1915.

The kitchen gallery: whitewashed brick, a black range and dresser behind a rope, glass cases on oak plinths.

Where to see it

The workshop, ground floor.

You’ll find it on the grinders’ bench, on the ground floor. The lift is by the front desk.

Open Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:00, and until 20:00 on Thursdays.

Plan your visit