Despite its Sheffield name, Wraggs – apparently established in 1870 – was directed from London.  The owners were (Arthur) Samuel Pinchbeck (1898-1988) and Frank Capner Pinchbeck (1906-?).  They were the sons of Harry Arthur Pinchbeck, a hardware agent, who lived in Sutton, Surrey, and his wife, May.  In the 1920s, Wraggs was listed at Montrose Works, Harwood Street.  By the 1930s, the address was Sceptre Works, 39 Arundel Street, and the Pinchbecks also had a London office in Friday Street.  They advertised pen, pocket, pruning and eraser knives, advertising pocket-knives, stainless grape fruit preparers, table cutlery, scissors, and butchers’ knives. 

In 1925, Harry Arthur and Samuel had patented a grape and fruit preparer with two special prongs.  Harry Arthur Pinchbeck died on 29 December 1940, aged 80, leaving £6,608.  His sons continued the firm, which was a neighbour of Herbert Housley.  He recalled that the Pinchbecks acted as London agents for several cutlery firms, including Housley.  When the business began to wind down, the brothers ‘only kept it going out of loyalty to their few, elderly employees’ (Housley, 1998¹).  The firm was listed until the early 1950s, but after the Arundel Street premises were demolished the Pinchbecks dissolved the firm in 1961.  The mark was a sceptre/Maltese Cross device.

^1. Housley, Herbert, Back to the Grindstone (Sheffield, 1998)