Mappin & Webb

In 1775, at the age of 18, Jonathan Mappin started a small cutlery workshop in Sheffield. Within a year the first Mappin hallmark was recorded at the assay office and in 1780 Jonathan Mappin was given the Freedom of the Cutlers Company. The 'Cutlers Company of Hallamshire', to give it its full title, was incorporated in 1624 to provide jurisdiction over those making cutlery near Sheffield and to promote Sheffield as a place of expertise. The Company and Sheffield's cutlery trade and reputation persist to this day. Jonathan Mappin's son Joseph followed him into the business and was also a Freeman, then came his grandson, also called Joseph. But it was under his four great grandsons, who incorporated the business as Mappin Brothers Ltd, in the middle of the 19th Century that the significant expansion began - at the time, the youngest brother, Jonathan Newton Mappin, was only 14 years old.