William Fairbairns & Sons
This firm registered a silver mark (WF) in Sheffield in 1885. The address was St Mary Axe in London. Fairbairns was a china and earthenware dealer, with interests in electro-plate. It was insolvent by 1890, when Thomas Richard Fairbairns (1855-1922) assumed the electro-plate liabilities and opened for business in St Mary Axe and Cambridge Street, Sheffield. Within two years he was bankrupt with debts of £11,702 (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 22 July 1892).