Objects Database

Hill & Son Ice Axe

Accession Number

1651.2022.1

Object Name

Hill & Son Ice Axe

Created

07/04/2022

Creator

Hermione Cooper

Accession Date

07/04/2022

Brief Description

Wooden shafted ice axe with serrated pick and pointed ferrule.

Materials

Wood, metal

Dimensions

Shaft 86(L)cms Head 24(L) cms

Number Of Objects

1

Inscription Description

On adze “HILL & SON 4 HAYMARKET. LONDON”

Colour

Silver, brown

Maker

Hill &Son

Object Production Place

England

Provenance

Edwin Hill & Son, cutlers, skate and Alpine axe manufacturers
An entry from the London Post Office directory of 1902 which nicely dates this fabulous and very rare, ice axe which we have here in the collection - how we acquired it is even more fabulous.
Mountain Guide, Klaus Schwartz, was climbing on our local mountain, Creag Meaghaidh, in the 1970’s, when he spotted something lying in the snow - an ice axe!
Wooden shafted axes were commonplace back then.The shaft was in a mess and the head was very rusty so Klaus took it home and put it in his shed where it stayed for 40+ years until he gave it to us.
Extensive cleaning revealed the Hill & Son logo and by amazing coincidence another pal of ours, John McCall, had sent us a very rare Hill & Son catalogue from around 1900 - see opposite.
It seems that Hill &Son were primarily cutlers but diversified into skates, ice axes and Ten Tool Bows which were early versions of multi-tools.
Ice axes seem to have disappeared from their product list by 1905/6, making our ice axe even rarer.

Acquisition Method

Donated by Klaus Schwatz

Acquisition Date

07/04/2022

Condition Check Date

07/04/2022

Rules

Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007

Modified

07/04/2022

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