John Wragg & Sons
This enterprise in Furnace Hill made some of the finest Bowie knives in the decade or so preceding the American Civil War. Several are depicted in Flayderman (2004)1. Adams et al (1990)2 has a fine Gold Rush example with a gold-washed acid etched slogan: ‘Heigh for California’. The business can be traced to John Wragg, who was born in Sheffield on 10 April 1805, the son of Samuel, a cutler, and his wife, Sarah. His brother was Samuel C. Wragg. Samuel Wragg Sen. may have been the pen ....
