The Swift family had been involved in ivory cutting since the early nineteenth century.  The first owner was William Swift (1864-1948), who was an ivory cutter.  Advertisements provided an establishment date of 1896.  Apparently, the firm was launched as a partnership in Union Lane/Charles Street by William Swift and William Augustus Wolstenholme – an arrangement dissolved in 1897.  Swift continued alone in Furnival Street.  He lived in Lees Hall Place, Meersbrook.   He died on 12 March 1948, aged 84, leaving £11,876 to his son, Laurence Wingfield Swift (1901-1969).  By the 1950s, when its address was 270 Rockingham Street, Swift’s manufactured knife scales (handles) in ivory and tortoiseshell.  

An article in International Cutler (Autumn 1951) featured Walter Swift, who was described as the third generation of his family to carry on the trade.  This was William Walter Swift (1889-1971), who was the cousin of the owner and reputedly the last ivory carver (Sheffield Star, 29 June 2021).  By 1951, he had spent 49 years cutting ivory, though he stated that with purchase tax at 100 per cent there was little incentive for new entrants into the trade.  Swift’s, therefore, sold handles made of celluloid and ‘nacrolaque’ (imitation pearl), which it distributed under licence.  A photograph shows a cutter at Swift’s (presumably Walter) measuring tusks supplied from the Belgian Congo (PictureSheffield.com).  The firm ceased trading in the 1950s.  Laurence Wingfield Swift died on 24 February 1969, aged 68.  He left £602.