John Wragg (c.1812-1887) was born in Bamford, Derbyshire, and moved to Sheffield in 1835.  He established a successful business in Bath Street importing and selling ‘Wragg’s Pickled Eggs’.  In about 1884, he partnered his son, Joseph Wragg (1854-1904), in taking over Edward Blaydes & Co.  The enterprise was known as John Wragg & Son, Advance Works, Denby Street (formerly New Thomas Street), Little Sheffield.  John Wragg died on 18 June 1887, aged 75, and was buried in Fulwood.  He left £18,990.  His eldest son, Thomas (d. 1919), took over the egg business, while Joseph operated Advance Works.

The factory was a three-storied affair, with two courtyards and three rows of workshops to the rear of the main block.  Contemporary engravings exaggerated the size of Advance Works (which can be judged today by George Tandy’s former Kenilworth Works, which still stands in Denby Street).  Blaydes’ old corporate mark – two crossed knife blades – was stamped on a wide variety of products:  table and butchers’ knives, pocket cutlery, razors, and camp and dagger knives.  The firm’s Illustrated Catalogue was said to feature about a thousand illustrations of the company’s cutlery.  Wragg’s also provided other cutlery houses with finished goods and raw materials, such as scales, forks, and blades.  An export trade was promised with the Americas, Germany, France, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, and Bohemia. 

However, Wragg’s struggled to establish itself in the market for competitively-priced cutlery.  By the early 1890s, workshops at Advance Works were being rented to separate businesses.  The factory was sold to W. R. Humphreys, shortly before Joseph Wragg’s death.  He died from pneumonia on 31 August 1904, aged 50.  He was a Liberal and Methodist (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 3 September 1904).  He was buried in Fulwood, leaving an estate that was resworn at £22,558.  The goodwill and remaining assets of John Wragg & Son (listed at 156 Eyre Street after 1904) were sold by Joseph’s widow, Jane, to Fenton Bros.  Wragg’s egg business continued to flourish.