The Apron Again

[curious]

Carol,
Interesting find, but lost here on the Apron thread. You might want to ask it on another thread -- even start one . . .

[curious4]

Hello Carol,

Think you might have something there - please do start a new thread!

Regards,
C4

[Trevor Marriott]

Hi everyone,

Last summer when we were in England on holiday I found a really great book in an Oxfam charity book shop, published in 1991. It's called 'The Victorian Catalogue of Household goods' and describes itself as 'A Complete Compendium of over five thousand items to Furnish and Decorate the Victorian Home'. It is a facsimile of a trade catalogue published by the firm of Silber & Flemming of London and Paris. The author of the Introducion to the book is Dorothy Bosomworth and it was published by the New York firm of Portland House. The catalogue was first published in 1883 and this edition facsimile dates "from the late 1880s (the exact date is not given in the original)".

The firm of Silber & Flemming was founded in London in 1856. They were manufacturers, importers, warehousemen and agents. The catalogue was "comparable to Littlewoods' or Universal Stores' current mail-order catalogues".

I quote from the Introduction now - "Who, then, were their customers? Without surviving company records, it is impossible to form a detailed impression, but we can assume that they consisted both of retailers, such as department stores, furnishing shops and ironmongers, china, silver and glass specialists, and of corporate clients".

On page 79 I came across a "Hunting Knife, very superior quality, with 7½-inch blade and 4-inch horn handle, diamond cut. This Knife is so constructed that the blade can be folded into the handle, where it is locked by a spring, leaving exposed 4 inches of the blade, which is protected by a best solid leather sheath".

Could this be the sort of knife that Jack the Ripper used?

Carol

Hi Carol

It was sugested that a knife with a blade around 6ins would have been used by the killer it would be wrong to try to identify a specific knife. If you start trying to do that all you finish up with is a long list of diferent types of knives with 6 inch blade which takes us nowhere.

[Carol]

Hi Carol

It was sugested that a knife with a blade around 6ins would have been used by the killer it would be wrong to try to identify a specific knife. If you start trying to do that all you finish up with is a long list of diferent types of knives with 6 inch blade which takes us nowhere.

Hi Trevor,
I doubt we will ever be able to identify what sort of knife the killer used but I think it interesting to narrow down the possibilities. If we consider a certain line of enquiry 'wrong' then in my opinion we limit ourselves needlessly.
Carol

[Carol]

Hi curious and curious 4,
Thank you both for your suggestion. I was wondering about that myself after I had already posted.
Carol