Dagger Made To Commemorate Launch Of Liverpool North Docks By The Prince of Wales In 1881 Is For Sale At Bonhams
A fine and rare cased hunting knife commemorating the opening of the dock gates into Liverpool’s New North Docks by H.R.H. The Prince Of Wales on 8 September 1881, will be sold at Bonhams next auction of Fine Antique Arms and Armour on April 23.
Elkington & Co of Liverpool made the knife which has a 22.7cm blade and is estimated to sell for £4,000 to £6,000. The dagger has a single-edged blade of Bowie type. Its handle boasts an image of two bear cubs playing on an ivy-clad tree-stump . The blade is inscribed: ‘The Fac-simile of This Hunting Knife Was Used As A Lever By H.R.H. The Prince Of Wales For Opening The Dock Gates At The Sea Entrance Into The New North Docks Liverpool 8 September A.D. 1881.”
The scabbard features the Prince of Wales’ feathers and motto, and the coat-of-arms and motto of the City of Liverpool.
The dagger is offered for sale with photocopied extracts of The Illustrated London News for Saturday, September 17, 1881 describing in detail the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to open the new North Docks, at Bootle, constructed by the Mersey Harbour and Dock Board of Liverpool.
The actual opening of the docks is described by the newspaper. ‘Arrived at the North docks, the Royal party landed amid a Royal salute from her Majesty’s ship Agincourt. The Prince opened the Langton Dock by moving a lever, when the ponderous gates, acted upon by hydraulic power, opened slowly and almost noiselessly. The performance of their act by his Royal Highness is shown in our first Illustration. The handle was removed from the lever, and found to be a handsome hunting-knife, which was placed in its scabbard and presented to the Prince as a souvenir of the occasion.’
The initials on the dagger case are without doubt those of George Fosbery Lyster (1821-1899) who was appointed Engineer-in-Chief to the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board in 1861. He was responsible for building most of the Birkenhead docks on the Wirral side of the River Mersey and new docks at the north end of Liverpool’s dock estate. He also built the Herculaneum dock and the new Harrington and Toxteth docks as well as new grain warehouses on both sides of the River Mersey.
David Williams, Bonhams Director of Arms and Armour comments: “This fine dagger commemorates a key moment in the development of the Liverpool docks which were the major British gateway to North America. The ship traffic in and out of Liverpool was phenomenal. This period at the end of the 1880’s saw the city at the peak of its wealth and power, which with its new status this year, as City of Culture, seeks to recapture in a new and creative way. You might say that this dagger recalls a Liverpool with a real cutting edge, something it seems intent on regaining.”
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