In my latest tale, Loving Lord Lindmore, my heroine has some hoydenish tendencies, for the stories in the A Regency Summer Scandal Anthology, are all about scandals and who commits them. Lady Cora has been taught to use a knife by her late father. She possesses more than a bit of expertise in using a knife to fillet a fish, or to whittle and carve, or even to protect herself. Yet, what do we know of how a knife was used in the Regency? What kind might we discover in use in the early 1800s?
What we now call a pocket knife developed from the Middle Ages’s “scribe’s knife or scribal knife.” The website Scribal Work Shop has one such knife for sale for $98.00. The description reads: “Handmade from 1084, steel with a padauk wood handle and bronze pins. This knife is modeled after 13th-15th century illuminated manuscript illustrations of scribe’s knives. This knife works equally well for cutting quills as it does for leather, woodworking, carving, and other utility tasks. We tend to think of it as a tougher medieval X-acto knife.”
Although the scribal knife was quite practical and had many uses, one could not fold it or safely carry it in a pocket. When I was still teaching school, I carried a pocket knife in my purse. Thankfully, the school’s resource officer never asked to search my purse, for he would have found two beauties. One day, a student in my class had his glasses came apart. We finally found the pin, but could not get it back in the little hole. Thankfully, one knife I carried had a magnetic end. We used that end to put the screw back and the other knife to set it in place. After that day, any time a student – mine or another teacher’s had glasses fall apart, the student would make his/her way to my classroom. I asked once if anyone had told the SRO about the knife. The students said they all understood they should not mention it. They were all just glad I could bring life back to their eyewear.
For centuries, people of lesser means used knives like the one shown above for everything from cutting rope to a piece of tough meat. Meanwhile, the wealthy had knives made for a variety of uses.
By the Regency era, many owned pen knives which actually folded into the shaft. They could be carried in a gentleman’s pocket or a lady’s reticle, as does Lady Cora Midland.
The Regency Redingote tells us, “From the Middle Ages to the beginning of the eighteenth century, most pen knives had blades which were fixed in the handle, or haft, of the knife. The blades were slightly curved and short, usually two inches or less. All pen knife blades were made of steel, in order to hold the sharp edge necessary to cut quills The haft was typically between three to four inches in length. The very wealthy had the hafts of their pen knives made of precious woods, horn, agate, tortoise shell, ivory, or mother-of-pearl, often encrusted with silver, gold and even semi-precious stones. The average person would have had a knife with a haft of more common hard woods, unadorned, sanded smooth and polished.
“In the eighteenth century, cutlers first made pen or quill knives with blades which could slide into the haft when not in use. By the middle of the century, they had also developed a folding version of the pen knife. These folding versions typically had blades of between 1 to 1½ inches in length. The blades of these folding knives were slightly shorter than the blades of the fixed or sliding-blade knives. The handles of these folding knives were made longer, however, which made the knife easier to hold. By the last decades of the eighteenth century, folding pen knives were made in increasingly larger numbers, and could be sold at prices many more people could afford. By the early nineteenth century, as both commerce and literacy steadily grew, the handles of these folding knives were often decorated in different ways to appeal to a wide range of literate customers.
“Though folding knives became popular, pen knives with fixed blades were still made and used during the Regency. These fixed blade knives were sometimes made as part of a writing set, and were most commonly kept in a writing desk. As they had for most of the eighteenth century, by the Regency, extremely ornate pen knives, of the folding, sliding and fixed blade varieties, could be purchased from a cutler, or even a jeweler, but the more ordinary models were typically purchased from the better stationery shops. The majority of stationers in London could be found along Fleet Street, or around Cornhill and Charing Cross. This is not surprising, since these locations were also the haunts of many who wrote for a living, including journalists, clerks, bankers and lawyers.
“This same pen knife was also just the thing for sharpening the new wood-case pencils which were being mass produced during the Regency. This was an advantage for both the pencil manufacturers and the pencil users. Pencil users most likely already had a pen knife, so they would not need to acquire yet another desk implement to sharpen their new, inexpensive pencils. The pencil manufacturers could advertise that no special tools were needed to maintain their pencils, thus ensuring their true low cost. The various types of pencil sharpeners with which we are familiar today were decades into the future even at the end of the Regency.”
LADY CORA TAKES SOCIETY BY STORM . . .
Lady Cora Midland, a highly-spirited country beauty, offers no pretensions, which win her many admirers, despite her lack of knowledge on how to manage the beau monde.
LORD MATTHEW LINDMORE IS IN DENIAL . . .
Lindmore reluctantly assists his grandmother in bringing Lady Cora out in Society. Yet, what appeared to be a daunting task becomes a transformation the earl does not expect.
When Lady Cora is on the the verge of marrying another, Lindmore fears time will expire before he can speak his own proposal.
Five fabulous regency stories to keep you reading all summer long!
This anthology contains:
Loving Lord Lindmore by Regina Jeffers
LADY CORA TAKES SOCIETY BY STORM… Lady Cora Midland, a high-spirited country beauty, offers no pretensions, which win her many admirers, despite her lack of knowledge on how to manage the beau monde.
LORD MATTHEW LINDMORE IS IN DENIAL… Lindmore reluctantly assists his grandmother in bringing Lady Cora out in Society. Yet, what appeared to be a daunting task becomes a transformation which the Earl does not expect.
Will time run out before Lady Cora and Lord Lindmore discover the truth… that they have fallen in love?
A Heart for an Heir by Arietta Richmond
A Duke’s heir seeking purpose in his life, a Lady with unconventional ideas, a collaboration for good, a campaign of scandalous gossip, a love won at knife point.
Thorne Gardenbrook, Marquess of Wildenhall, heir to the Duke of Elbury, needs something to fill his days – something other than his mother’s insistence that he find a bride. Lady Faith St John is facing the fact that, after the scandals which rocked her family in the previous year, she may never have the chance to marry. Then a secret revealed by a housemaid leads Faith into subterfuge, behaviour improper for a Lady, and an accidental meeting with Lord Wildenhall, and she is not certain, at first, whether he will condemn her, or conspire with her. What happens then leads them both down unexpected paths, into scandal which will destroy Faith’s reputation, unless they the gossip before it’s too late.
And, in the end, when the only thing between Faith and ruin is the point of a very small knife, will Lord Wildenhall find her in time?
Sister to Scandal by Janis Susan May
Miss Phyllidia Kettering is facing the destruction of all of her dreams – all because of a scandal her sister has caused, by leaving her husband and running off with another man. And the worst part is, she isn’t entirely sure that she blames her sister for what she’s done. Then, to add to her miseries, the situation brings Mr Gareth Routledge back to her door – the man who broke her heart, and left her haunted by the mocking whispers of society. When greed, malice and blackmail are discovered, the scandal deepens, even as Phyllidia and Gareth discover that, just perhaps, they still care for each other.
Can they prevent the destruction of her family, and find their way back to love as they do?
Lady Matilda Heals a Hero by Olivia Marwood
Lady Matilda Calthorpe has always been a little impetuous, although she hides it well, when on view to the ton – she certainly doesn’t want to face the whispers and scandal that her friends and her sister have all faced in their path to finding love! But when unexpected circumstances place her in a scandalously compromising situation with the man whom she secretly desires, her impetuous nature takes over – with the worst (or perhaps the best?) possible outcome.
Now all she has to do is convince him to let her love him, before they are doomed to a life of misery.
Beyond Scandal by Victoria Hinshaw
Lady Elizabeth Lovell has been betrayed – by those closest to her. As if it isn’t enough that her father has done something deeply scandalous, now her brother has decided to pack her off to her great aunt. Every certainty has been removed from her life, and as fortune hunting suitors circle, she finds herself taking comfort in morning rides with her oldest friend, the son of her great aunt’s neighbours. But nothing is as it seems, or as she expected, and to live beyond the revelations of scandal, they will both have to accept significant change – can they do it, and find love in the process? Or is there nothing but misery beyond the touch of scandal?
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GIVEAWAY: I have two eBooks copies of Regency Summer Scandals available to those who comment below.
Every Woman Dreams... 
Interesting!
Interesting reading
It hadn’t occurred to me that the familiar “pen knife” (which I also knew as a “jack knife” in Girl Scouts) was originally used for sharpening quill pens! Also interesting to consider the pencil as new tech to be “maintained.”
There are so many things we “think” we know, and then later find out we did not.
Would love to read this!
Thanks for joining me. I will contact winners over the weekend. The book does not officially release until July 11.