Rourkes Drift Bowie knife help

[Norfolkwolf]

Hi

I have owned this Bowie for a few years now and was hoping that someone could help with authentication etc, it has a large 12 inch blade and is 18 inches total, brookes & Crookes makers mark and has Rourkes Drift Zululand engraved on the blade.
Does anyone out there know anything like or about this Bowie

Thanks in advance

Ps sorry about the jack Russell in one of the pics

[harryamb2]

imo I don't think any of the soldiers of the 24th foot would have that and they were the Rorkes Drift men.

[Watchdog]

Quite right. 24th Regiment of foot (a single company of 2nd battalion to be precise so a fairly small number) were a regular army unit and this is not a regulation issue item so such a knife is unlikely to have been carried by any of them. Also, the etching by definition must have been done after the battle.

A commemorative item perhaps but I doubt very much that it is a Rourkes Drift "veteran". Stranger things have happened as there were other "odd and sods" at the station but again the etching had to be done after the event and probably by the maker as it must be in doubt that anybody then or now would have gone to the effort and expense of having a single used knife etched. So, back to the commemorative idea then.

Interesting item though and probably of some age. Maybe collectible in its own right. Get it checked out by a knife collector/historian.

Regards

Mark

[rbminis]

I will check my references when I get home to try to ascertain what era Brookes & Crookes was in the knife manufacturing business.
Ralph.
This is what I was able to find with a quick google.

[Brookes & Crookes founded in 1858 by John Brookes and Thomas Crookes.
In Melville & Co's Commercial Directory of Sheffield 1859 the company appears as " manufacturers of spring-knives and dressing case instruments".
The company was always a smaller operation when compared to one of the larger firms such as Joseph Rodgers, employing at most 200 workers compared to tens times that at Rodgers. But they produced quality products with their renown "Bell Trademark" considered " a Badge of Excellence".
Paris Exhibition of 1867 was awarded only cutlery gold medal.
Philadelphia Centennial 1876 awarded a first class prize.
Paris Exhibition 1878 awarded gold medal.

After WW11 the demand for their quality products fell drastically and the company went out of business in 1957.
This info was taken from The Sheffield Knife book" by Geoffrey Tweedale.

[Wagriff]

Turn of the Century tourism souvenir? Or, perhaps, one in a series of great battles commemoratives?

[Norfolkwolf]

Thanks for the info guys
I appreciate it