The ‘FIRTH-BREARLEY’ mark would suggest that this table knife was made in the interwar period. Frustratingly, a search of Sheffield directories has failed to reveal any mention of this firm. It may have been a company name used for trading purposes by Bernard Miller (b. 1902), who operated M. Bernard & Son Ltd at Rockingham Street/St Thomas Lane. 

Interestingly, B. Thomas & Co (Cutlers) Ltd, trading at 58 Rockingham Street, was registered in 1950 as a private company with £1,000 capital. The subscribers were Bernard M. Miller and his son, Derek, of Whiteley Wood Road; and Doris K. Cutts, Langer Lane, Chesterfield (Sheffield Telegraph, 28 December 1950).  The same subscribers simultaneously launched J. Mead & Co (Cutlers) Ltd, 60 Rockingham Street; and John Bain & Co (Cutlers) Ltd, Newcastle Street. In the Sheffield directory (1951), these firms were not listed. Their development may have been hindered by Bernard Miller’s sudden death a couple of years later.

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