We believe this company may have been started by Benjamin Jacobs during the early 1900s.  Benjamin was born in Sheffield in 1857, the son of Michael Joseph Gostynski, (a naturalised Polish immigrant, who changed his name to Jacobs) and Rachel Miriam Warzawska.  In 1871 the family were living at 57 West Bar Green next to the Bay Horse public House and Benjamin's father was a Hebrew Minister at a synagogue located on Fig Tree Lane.  

During the next fifty years Benjamin married Miriam Goldman (also the daughter of a naturalised Polish immigrant), had three sons and four daughters and a variety of jobs, i.e. financial agent, commission agent, merchant and director.  The 1911 census identifies Benjamin as a 'director of a limited liability company & cutlery agent and an employer', living at 4 Inglewood, Park Lane in the Broomhall area.

A 1913 Directory lists the company as a cutlery manufacturer at Central Chambers, High Street later executing government orders for clasp knives during WW1.  Six years later the company had moved to Town Offices, also on Sheffield High Street and was included in Whites Directory 1919/1920 as manufacturers of cutlery, table knives, razors, safety razors and blades.

Following Benjamin's death in 1920, his eldest son Alexandre Claude Jacobs ran the company, initially at Star Works, Boston Street during 1922 and 3 years later at 34 Furnival Street, where it was listed as 'a specialist in stainless cutlery'.  The company was still at this address in 1929 but no further records were found beyond this date.  Alexandre Claude retired and moved to London, living in the Coulsdon and Purley district of Surrey where he died in 1948 at the age of 66.

We have no example of their knives in our Collection so many thanks to Karin Piko for this photograph of a knife she found in a jumble sale in Victoria, Australia. If you have any further information about the company or the family, please share it with us via enquiries@hawleytoolcollection.com.