Journal Supplement – Knife Handles

Discovered by Mudlarks: Knife handles from the River Thames in the City of London c.1350 – c.1870

By Simon Moore and Graham duHeaume

A postscript to the Catalogue of The Queenhithe Collection, by Graham duHeaume, published as a supplement to the Journal of the Antique Metalware Society (2020). Edited for the AMS by Rachel Hunt.

Contents:

• Mid-Medieval – Mid-Tudor c.1350-c.1550
• Mid-Tudor – Mid-Stuart c.1550-c.1650
• Mid-Stuart – Early Victorian c.1630-c.1850

Most of the knives and knife fragments from the River Thames foreshore were found by digging (when this was permitted), also by metal-detecting and surface searching. The ironwork has largely survived and only a few items have sustained any serious corrosion. The cutlers’ marks have also survived and nearly all of them are legible although most of the earlier (pre-1600) marks are untraceable.

Rachel Hunt | Journal Editor for the Antique Metalware Society | March 2023