Hello all, BSSM has this saw as a brand of Needham Veall and Tyzack but does not have an awful lot to say about why the Taylor name should be a brand/second quality line of Needham's. An awful lot more can be found in Wikipedia of all places, and insofar as Wiki can be believed, I copy and paste sections of the entry below. Taylor's Eye Witness Works is an industrial building situated on Milton Street in the Devonshire Quarter area of Sheffield city centre, South Yorkshire, England. The works are a Grade II listed building which since their foundation in 1852 have always specialised in producing kitchen and pocket knives along with various associated products. The building is believed to be the only traditional works in Sheffield which still manufactures its original products. It stands next to the Beehive Works another listed cutlery works on Milton Street..................... John Taylor founded a knife and edge tools firm around the year 1820 in St. Phillip’s Road in the Netherthorpe area of the city. In 1838 Taylor applied for and was granted the Eye Witness trademark for his goods, it is said he chose it after being inspired by the line "No eye hath seen such" from Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1. ............ Upon the death of John Taylor in 1854 the firm passed to his daughter who had married into the Needham family who were also knife producers.[1].................. The company became known as Needhams Ltd, joining forces with James Veall in 1876 and the well-known local firm of Tyzack’s in 1879 to form Needham, Veall & Tyzack. In 1870 the firm only employed 30 people,.............. NB These latter dates do not coincide with BSSM which has the firm from 1884 to 1887. Who this particular John Taylor was. I don't have the faintest idea. Nor do I know if he made this saw or not, but I suspect not. Looking at the mark it looks very much like a later one and so BSSM is probably right in ascribing it to Needham Veall and Tyzack. I have seen the Eye Witness mark on cutlery before but not on a saw but unfortunately BSSM does not have an image to compare this one to, or to give a date. Fred
Great manufacturer's mark there Fred. I really like image/word combination marks. The handle patch also adds character. Trademarks on Base Metal Tableware shows nearly 20 different trademarks for Needham Veall & Tyzack (not exactly as your's though), including "Taylor Sheffield" and a couple of "eye witness" marks, and lists NV&Ts existence as 1865-1925 Graces Guide has NV&T as 1897-1922 Sheffield Indexers lists William Veall (James' son ? ) as a director of NV&T in 1925 ...so a few more date conflicts, which just adds a bit more mystery to your great old saw.
I've not really got the time (or the energy) at the moment, as I have a lot of domestic pressures, but I would just like to say that the dates in BSSM as saw makers were very short lived ie 1884-1887, having been founded in 1854; I should perhaps have stated more clearly that I didn't therefore think that any saws with the name that turn up would be of that 3 year period. My dates are taken from Tweedale's Directory of Sheffield Cutlery Manufacturers, which I think is the bees knees on this subject. What I cannot defend, except to plead pure carelessness, is the absence of a TEW mark, as I've had one for years, and somehow it got missed from the book: here it is, dated, tentatively as always, to the catch-all date of c1900. It looks a bit later than Fred's but I wouldn't care to put any money on a bet either way.