A new partnership to me. I am guessing – I hope correctly – that these two were Richard Bradley (1832-1836) and Henry Hanbury (1832-1841). Both names also occur later, but I think this partnership may predate 1832, which is unfortunately a kind of artefact of the London directories, which did not have a separate heading for saw makers until that date, and the earlier directories tend to be filled with the wealthy, rather than mere tradesmen. The two worked separately in Soho, then a centre of the furniture industry, in addresses not far apart, and I expect there is somewhere in an archive in London a record of them together. Judging purely ( I wrote puerly at first, which may be more accurate) on the shape of the ampersand, I'd like to think their partnership predated their separation. The saw when it arrived showed its age, particularly in a very aggressive area of rust close to the handle, but the rest of it afforded a very enjoyable half hour or so with garnet papers, a bit of brass wire brushing and then Renaissance wax: photos show before and after – the before scratches, the result of previous aluminium oxide abrasion, mostly disappeared.
Simon Very cool in so many ways. Some time ago I posted a saw that continued to be a mystery as to the maker. http://www.backsaw.net/forum/index.php?threads/shaw-hanbury.271/#post-1619 We had thought that the Hanbury was a locale because we never found any reference to a saw maker with this name. The Hanbury locales were too small to consider them as locations for a sawmakers and the "Shaw" name didn't help. I wonder if this is another example of Henry Hanbury's work but stamped on anothers parts? The Hanbury mark doesn't look like a regular stamp as your example shows but this may have been an early effort of some type. I wonder if we have solved a mystery that has been bugging me for a bit. You also did a very respectable job on cleaning and not over cleaning a nice saw. enjoy and thanks Joe S.
That's a gorgeous little saw Simon, the font of the stamp looks quite old indeed, what a rare survivor, thanks for sharing... Regards Mari