This firm was listed after the Second World War as a cutlery manufacturer.  The ‘TOPAZ’ mark (across a shield) can be found on scissors, pocket knives, and utility knives (such as scrapers).   The address was Princess Works, Scotland Street, which was also the address of the company’s owner, Brass Founders (Sheffield) Ltd.   This firm had been registered in 1919, with £500 capital, at Princess Works, Rockingham Street.  The directors were Oswald Frank Buxton (1884-1936), an engineer, and John Wilson Naylor, an accountant.  Buxton was born at Openshaw, near Manchester, the son of James Charles Buxton (an engineer) and his wife, Sarah Jane née Welch.  By 1891, the family was living in Brightside, where James was a superintendent in a steel works.   

In 1909, Oswald Frank Buxton married Clara Annie Naylor (1885-1963), who was the brother of John Wilson Naylor.   By 1911, Buxton was a mechanical draughtsman in a rolling mill.  During the First World War, he served in the ambulance brigade in France and Belgium and was later transferred to the artillery (Sheffield Independent, 25 April 1936).  Captain O. F. Buxton died on 24 April 1936, aged 51.   His obituary focused on his work with the St John’s Ambulance Brigade in Sheffield, rather than his industrial career.  His funeral was at St Cuthbert’s Church, where a stained glass memorial window was later placed (Sheffield Independent, 25 April 1936).

He left £1,561 to his widow, Clara, who – along with their son, John Gordon Buxton (1917-1995) – inherited the business.  Topaz continued to be listed at the same address as Brass Founders – Princess Works, Scotland Street – and appeared in directories until the mid-1970s.  The parent company traded until the early 1990s.   John Gordon Buxton, who lived at Bamford, died on 28 March 1995, leaving £797,153.