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Mappin & Webb

The firm when Jonathan Mappin opened his workshop in 1775 in Sheffield with a view to creating outstanding British silverware. Within a year of entering the first his mark, Jonathan Mappin was given Freedom of the Cutlers Company, a company that actively promoted Sheffield as a manufacturing destination of expertise. The company continued to expand and pass through successive generations of Mappin silversmiths. In the mid nineteenth century, under the management of Jonathan Mappin’s four great grandsons, the business was incorporated as Mappin Brothers Ltd and experienced a significant period of expansion. In 1860, John Mappin, the youngest of the four brothers and great grandson to Jonathan Mappin, broke away from Mappin Brother and started his own business, Mappin & Company, opening his first Mappin store in 1860 at 77-78 Oxford Street, London. John Mappin was joined in this new venture two years later by his brother-in-law George Webb. Mappin Brothers continued to operate as the flagship firm but was eventually closed in 1902 and was absorbed into Mappin & Webb Ltd.