Masonic dagger. Spindle in twisted brown horn. Early 19th ce - Lot 193

Masonic dagger. Spindle in twisted brown horn. Early 19th century (very rare). Brass, steel, leather, horn Length. T: 32.5 cm; Blade: 23 cm. Good condition. Guard consisting of four brass femurs and skulls. Double-edged blade with central edge, signed "George E. ST Clair". Boiled leather scabbard with two chased brass fittings. George Edward Morland St Clair was a cutlery manufacturer active in Sheffield, England, in the late XIXᵉ century. Born in 1861 in Bootle, near Liverpool, he moved to Masbrough, near Rotherham, where he worked as a pawnbroker's assistant. In 1887, he was listed as a cutlery manufacturer at the Charles Street Works in Sheffield. In 1888, however, he went bankrupt, and was subsequently lost to history. It is therefore possible that the dagger blade signed "George E. ST Clair" came from this craftsman, active for a relatively short period in Sheffield.