Edwin Hunter (1813-1873) was a prominent maker of scissors.  His enterprise vied with the leaders in the trade – such as Gibbins, Hobson, and Wilkinson – and he was a regular supplier of scissors to Joseph Rodgers & Sons.  He was baptised in Sheffield in 1813, the son of George (a scissors smith) and Elizabeth.  In 1837, he married Mary (1813-1855), the daughter of cutlery manufacturer, Robert Hudson.  They had three sons: Edwin (1846-1864), Willis (1848-1914), and Frederick (1855-1862).  By 1841, Hunter was a scissors smith living and working at 164 Broomhall Street.  

Hunter’s skills (or those of his workmen) drew parallels with the work of Peter Atherton.  His showing at the Great Exhibition (1851) received an admiring review in Tallis’s History and Description of the Crystal Palace (Strutt, 1852¹).  The display (which won a Prize Medal) was in a glass case 4ft 6 inches x 5ft 6 inches, with a carved oak frame, containing 230 pairs of scissors:

The centre object was a pair of huge scissors, twenty-two inches long, the bows and shanks representing in outline two crowns, the upper one surmounted by a thistle.  All the ornamental work was wrought with the file, some portions of the surface being chased.  The object was by far the most expensive pair of scissors ever produced in Sheffield.  On each side of these appeared another pair.  One pair represented, in chasing, the bruising of the serpent’s head …

At the end of 1851 – when his residence was Vernon Villa, Northumberland Road – Hunter relocated his works to Eyre Street.  By 1861, he was one of the largest scissors makers in the town, employing 53 workers (32 men, 9 boys, and 12 females).   Edwin Hunter died, aged 60, on 15 June 1873 at Moor Oaks, in Spring Hill.  His tomb is in Ecclesall churchyard.  The auctions of his carriage and horses and his personal property (furniture, paintings, and wine) show that he was wealthy (Sheffield Independent, 6 September 1873).  He left under £25,000.   His wife, Mary, had died.  He had remarried in 1857 to Marianne Pickwoad (née Coates), but she too apparently predeceased him (as did his eldest son, Edwin).  Willis continued to work as a ‘clerk’ in the trade, but Hunter’s business ended after his death.   His relatives bequeathed examples of his work to Sheffield Museums.  These included scissors made for the Great Exhibition, including the giant piece inscribed ‘Bruising the Serpent’s Head’ and ‘For the Exhibition of 1851’.

^1. Strutt, J G (ed), Tallis’s History ad Description of the Crystal Palace and the Exhibition of the World’s Industry (London, 3 vols, 1852) Vol 2