Cutleryware

Our middle class householder will have of household goods about him, carpets, mahogany chairs, tables, chests of drawers, curtained beds, washhand stands, crockeryware in abundance, and good cutleryware; and in his stock of wearing apparel, shirts, drawers, stockings, handkerchiefs, and such articles, whether seen or unseen, in comfortable plenty.

Last month some $300,000 worth of cutleryware was imported into Britain, which provides an indication of the extent of outside competition, particularly from Germany.

And Defoe wrote in 1724 of ‘the continued smoke of the forges’ at Sheffield which were always at work, making all sorts of cutleryware.

Wilberforce was as active as ever on the floor of the House, calling for the regulation of cast iron and cutleryware in order to prevent unfair competition with Yorkshire manufacturers, and supporting the establishment of a military training college, something of a British afterthought at the end of eight full years of warfare.