Artifact: Penknife
Materials: Steel with loaded stamped silver
Dimensions: Length: 5.12 in, Width: 0.5 in
Date: Circa 1780
Origin: Sheffield, England
Collection: Victoria & Albert Museum
Ledger Entry: Penknife
Department: Literacy
Customer: Mary Fling
Ledger Page: 139
Imported From: Sheffield(?)
Product Description
Penknifes were crucial to the writing process for cutting the tip of a quill so that it can be used to write. Recent scholarship indicates that penknives were not particularly popular items until the middle of the eighteenth century in Colonial America.
Citation: E. Jennifer Monaghan, Learning to Read and Write in Colonial America (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007).;
Historical Price: 4 pence; Modern USD: $3.74
Product Variations
The databases record five purchases of penknives. The least expensive was four pence, however the quality and craftsmanship of the blade varied. Ramsay sold Barlow's best penknife and and a Stafford penknife for one pound ten shillings.
