Christopher Johnson, who was born in Sheffield in about 1809, started his cutlery business in 1836 in Howard Street.  The original partnership was apparently Christopher and Henry Johnson, which was listed in a directory (1837) as C. & H. Johnson, successor to Ward & Co, Howard Street (Broomhead & Ward).  Christopher and Henry Johnson had also been listed in 1833 as merchant’s clerks.  In 1837, C. & H. Johnson, advertised for table knife hafters in Howard Street (Sheffield Independent, 4 March 1837).  Apparently, Christopher Johnson was then a partner (with Henry Johnson) in Webster & Johnson, a cutlery firm which operated from about 1839 to 1846 in Sycamore Street (William Webster). 

In 1841, Christopher Johnson was enumerated in the Census as a merchant living in Devonshire Street.  In the late 1840s, he moved to Gell Street and then by 1852 to Rockingham Street.  (Henry Johnson, meanwhile, may have been involved with Standfield, Newbould & Baildon)  In 1854, Christopher was based in Western Works, Howard Street, with an office at Hatton Garden, London.  Western Works was apparently so named because of Johnson’s flourishing trade with the south-western counties of England.  In 1859, he relocated to Portobello Street, which remained the centre of the firm’s operations into the twentieth century.  Johnson was a merchant, but he listed himself as a steel converter and refiner, and a manufacturer of files, tools, and a complete range of cutlery (including table and pocket knives). 

Johnson soon developed a liking for country life, partly one suspects because his business was so profitable.  He brought new partners into the business, such as his nephew John Hibbert (c.1832-1908).  In 1868, another partner, John Marshall, joined the business, and the title ‘& Co’ was added.  Marshall was born at Chapel Hall on 8 May 1836, the son of William Marshall of Calderbank, Lanark.  Herbert John Johnson and Herbert William Johnson (presumably sons) were listed as partners in 1871, but this was a brief involvement.  By 1871, Christopher Johnson had moved to The Grange, Carlton, Nottinghamshire, and in 1879 withdrew from the partnership with Hibbert and Marshall.  He died at The Grange on 2 May 1881, aged 72, after ‘a lingering illness’.  He left £20,984.

Marshall and Hibbert took over the business.  In 1881, Marshall told the Census that the firm employed 167 workers (114 men, 14 boys, 30 women, and 9 girls).  Hibbert’s calculation was ‘about 200’.  Hibbert himself retired in 1886 (he died, aged 77, on 1 June 1908, and was buried in Fulwood, leaving £17,444).  Marshall became the owner of the business in the late nineteenth century, when the company operated at Western Works and Western Steel Works in Portobello, with a London agent in Victoria Street, London.  Sheffield City Library has several Johnson trade catalogues and manuscript letter-books.  These show almost every type of cutlery from table knives to hunting knives.  Hafted in buffalo, ivory and stag, the quality is self-evident.  Many of these products were exported.  Johnson, Hibbert, and Marshall described themselves as ‘Australian merchants’.  In 1880, Johnson’s won a gold medal at the Melbourne International Exhibition and then appointed an Australian agent, J. W. Bunby, who developed a flourishing trade in the 1880s and 1890s.  Besides steel and files, the firm sold plated-ware and registered silver marks in Sheffield in 1890 and 1903.  Johnson’s trade mark – a flag enclosing his initials – was also well known in South Africa, where the firm won a gold medal at the Kimberley Exhibition in 1892.  At the turn of the century, Johnson’s was hard pressed to satisfy the demand from these markets.

John Marshall died on 6 April 1915, at his residence Woodville, in Broomhall Park.  He was aged 78 and was buried in Ecclesall.  An extensive obituary in The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 8 April 1915, discussed his work as chairman of the board of Sheffield Royal Infirmary, but hardly mentioned his business career.  He left £31,444.  Marshall’s son-in-law, John Mowbray Denton (1870-1958), took control of the firm and extended its trade in New Zealand (where Denton had been born in 1870).  Denton was honorary secretary of the British Cutlery Research Association (established 1921).  Christopher Johnson & Co became a limited company in about 1938.  But after 1945, the decline of its overseas trade, particularly with Australia, hit Western Works hard.  In 1955, it was bought by Wostenholm and Johnson’s was closed.  J. Donnelly & Co occupied the vacant 3-storey factory.

The Yorkshire Film Archive has a copy of a film entitled 'C.J. & CO Cutlery' [YFA5428].  The film, made in two parts, shows the extensive process of making handmade cutlery at the Western Works of Christopher Johnson.  The film is accompanied by intertitles which explain in detail the production process. It was made in 1928 by Christie and Hodgson Ltd, 246 West Street and can be seen online at the Yorkshire Film Archive.