with broad blade formed with a clipped-back point, recessed rectangular ricasso struck with the maker’s name and heart and pistol mark, German silver hilt comprising recurved guard, ferrule and pommel each decorated with scrolling foliage in low relief, and mother-of-pearl grip, in its German silver mounted leather scabbard with belt loop,14.5 cm blade

Literature

David Hayden-Wright, The Heritage of English Knives, Atglen, Pennsylvania, 2008, p. 268.

Jonathan Crookes (1778-1866) worked for Joseph Rodgers & Sons and was apparently involved with the production of Rodgers’ famous Year Knife, credited in a directory advertisement of 1884 as, ‘Inventor and Sole Maker of that Unique and Superb Specimen of Cutlery, containing Eighteen Hundred and Twenty-one Blades, with Different Instruments, value 200 guineas’. He is recorded as a manufacturer of pen knives in Rockingham Lane in 1828 and by 1839, Jonathan Crookes & Son had moved to Eldon Street, close to Wostenholm's Washington Works, where it remained until the end of the nineteenth century. After Jonathan's death, his son Henry continued the business and maintained his father’s emphasis on quality and limited output. In 1896, Henry's widow died and the mark was acquired by Joseph Allen, at Ecclesall Works, 245 Rockingham Street. Crookes continued to be advertised as a stand-alone name at that address.

Part proceeds to benefit the Acquisition Fund of the Arms and Armor department, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.