Presentation bayonet?

[Guest]

Hi Guys

I am new to the Forum - and was brought to this thread while I was searching for engraved bayonet information !!

I have an engraved 1907 - but different from the OP - inasmuch as this one has NO marks on the ricasso - and was clearly pulled from production to become a presentation piece and never went thru test or saw service !

It is dedicated to Sir Arthur McD Duckham (the brother or Alexander Duckham - whose matching engraved 07 appears in Mr Skennerton's Commonwealth Bayonets book)

If anyone can shed any light on how many of these might have been handed out to the various dignitaries at the time - or any other history I would be very grateful !

Pictures below for your delectation ..................................

Cheers  !!!
 

Edited 13 October , 2018 by Guest

[MikeyH]

VERY nice indeed.

 

Mike.

[Dave66]

Same from me also, 

Many thanks for sharing...great piece.

 

Dave.

[trajan]

Wellcome to GWF!

 

And well well! What a remarkable piece you have there! Any family connection?

 

Who knows how many may have been treated like this as presentation pieces - not engraved but an acid process, the name of which eludes me right now. Any marks on the frog?

 

Stamped grips this late in the GW are surely for show, and the screw-heads should be aligned - and what about scabbard marks?

 

Thanks for posting this one, really interesting even to a non-P.1907 collector!

[JMB1943]

Harri,

 

You lucky lad!!!

Wiki tells us that Alexander Duckham was a chemist and lubrication specialist.

He founded Duckham’s Oil Co.; I remember using his green (chlorophyll) vegetable oil-based motor oil in my car in the mid-60’s.

Arthur D (Skennerton’s Book) was his younger brother.

Skennerton gives WILK manufacturing total as 2,360,000 and 17,000 were turned out every week at peak production.

This leads to the estimate that the 2,000,000th P. ‘07 was made probably in mid-August to mid-September of 1918.

I am sure that lubrication of the WILK machinery was critical to maintaining a virtually non-stop machining operation, and that 

the presentation bayonets  were a “thank you” for advice and lubricants provided.

 

How did you come by this lovely piece?

 

Regards,

JMB

Edited 13 October , 2018 by JMB1943
Typo

[Chasemuseum]

20 hours ago, trajan said:

not engraved but an acid process, the name of which eludes me right now

This is just acid etching, or acid engraving. The same process as used on the bayonet in post #1, just about 60 years apart, although both applied to bayonets of the same original vintage.

Cheers

Ross

[trajan]

21 hours ago, JMB1943 said:

... Wiki tells us that Alexander Duckham was a chemist and lubrication specialist. ... This leads to the estimate that the 2,000,000th P. ‘07 was made probably in mid-August to mid-September of 1918. ... How did you come by this lovely piece?

 

Thanks JMB - I remember Duckworth's oil also! 

 

1 hour ago, Chasemuseum said:

This is just acid etching, or acid engraving. The same process as used on the bayonet in post #1, just about 60 years apart, although both applied to bayonets of the same original vintage.

 

There you have it - thanks! Couldn't quite remember the name of the process but I should have figured it out... After all, all those lovely pubs back in the UK I frequented in my ill-spent youth(!) with windows treated this way...

[MikeyH]

Duckhams oil no longer readily available, but Halfords Classic 20W50, is green and even smells like the original.

(use it in my MGB).

 

Mike.

Edited 14 October , 2018 by MikeyH

[Guest]

On 13/10/2018 at 18:54, JMB1943 said:

Harri,

 

You lucky lad!!!

Wiki tells us that Alexander Duckham was a chemist and lubrication specialist.

He founded Duckham’s Oil Co.; I remember using his green (chlorophyll) vegetable oil-based motor oil in my car in the mid-60’s.

Arthur D (Skennerton’s Book) was his younger brother.

Skennerton gives WILK manufacturing total as 2,360,000 and 17,000 were turned out every week at peak production.

This leads to the estimate that the 2,000,000th P. ‘07 was made probably in mid-August to mid-September of 1918.

I am sure that lubrication of the WILK machinery was critical to maintaining a virtually non-stop machining operation, and that 

the presentation bayonets  were a “thank you” for advice and lubricants provided.

 

How did you come by this lovely piece?

 

Regards,

JMB

Hi JMB

 

This bayonet (along with a LOT of other nice pieces) was amongst my late Fathers collection.

We collected together and separately (if that makes sense) and now it’s just me !!

 

i have done some research on Sir Arthur McD and he would have got this (I guess) in his own right and not off the back of his Brothet as Sur Arthur was supplying chemicals for explosives manufacture and during the GW was involved in Munitions Supply in 1915. He apparently performed a number of other executive and advisor roles, notably Chairman of the Advisory Committee, Ministry of Munitions, which got him his Knighthood.

 

its a lovely piece which I guess should be in a museum somewhere !!

 

cheers

 

 

[Mk VII]

Duckham's name appears at the bottom of several letters and reports on smallarms in the National Archives which I was looking at last week down at Kew. 

[Guest]

I too was searching for information on the Presentation Wilkinson etched bayonets when I found this site.

 

I co-wrote with the late Roger Evans an article on the subject which was published in The Armourer magazine Issue 87 dated May/June 2008. My job was to locate all the known examples of these etched bayonets - I found seven of them. Roger then did the research & wrote the article.

 

Roger's widow Mary kindly passed on to me his extensive research file for the article. In it I found correspondence between Roger & several collectors (who shall remain nameless) dated after the publication of our article which threw doubt on our findings. Roger never let on to me anything about this. The correspondence centred around the date that the etched bayonets had been made & who had made them. Also that the etched names did not warrant a 'Presentation Piece'. Genuine bayonets do not have any markings on the ricasso but have Wilkinson acceptance stamps in both grips. The 'doubtful' bayonets were made in the 1970s, had markings on the ricasso & the etched recipients' names were mainly those of Wilkinson employees of the time of the First World War who certainly would not have been presented with such bayonets. Roger came to the conclusion, as I did after reading his findings, that the project had been abandoned at an early stage, after only a handful of bayonets had been etched. It's interesting to note that Wilkinson photo albums accompanied the presentation bayonets & only two of these have ever surfaced. There are in existence some genuine etched bayonets however - the example pictured above to Sir Arthur Mc.D.Duckham K.C.B., his brother Alexander Duckham, H.B.Randolph & one that I've located recently, Sir James Stevenson K.C.B. These recipients either held senior positions in the Ministry of Munitions or Wilkinson's. I intend sometime to write a follow-up to mine & Roger's original article detailing the subsequent findings. 

 

By the way, the actual bayonet featured at the start of this post etched to The Irish Guards is now in my collection - so it did find a good home!