This maker of gold, silver, fruit, and dessert knives registered a silver mark in 1820.  The mark was ‘IME’ and the workshop was at Howard Street.  Biographical details are scanty.  Apprenticeship records listed John Etches as the son of William, a labourer at Crooks [sic], who was apprenticed in 1799 to John Beardshaw, a Crookesmoor cutler.  He became a Freeman in 1791 (Leader, 1905-06¹).  However, it is not certain that this is the same man.  John Etches appeared once in a Sheffield directory in 1821 at Howard Street.  But he died on 12 November of that year, a silver cutler of Broom Spring, ‘after a short illness, deservedly and sincerely respected’ (Sheffield Independent, 17 November 1821).  His burial is untraced.   A sale followed of his silver and silver plated dessert knives and forks, fruit knives, and all his working tools and fixtures.  The items had a ‘superior style of workman-ship’ and the trading connections were ‘extensive and respectable’ (Sheffield Independent, 19 January 1822).  

^1. Leader, R E, History of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire in the County of York (Sheffield, 1905-6)