18th Century Knife Grinders

Last updated: Jan 5, 2024

Habit de rémouleur Gaigne petit has a fantastical way of carrying/wearing tools, but the tools themselves are worth a look.

(Elsewhere on this site, you can find grindstones and knife-grinders from the 9th-16th centuries.)

• The little knife-grinder
• Knives or Cisers to Grinde = Cauteaux et Ciseaux a Moudre = Ruota Coltellini by Marcellus Laroon
• Gagne Petit by Nicolas Bonnart
• Decroteur qui décrotte by Nicolas Guérard
• Drawing of a man sharpening a blade on a grindstone by Edme Bouchardon, c. 1730s
• Cries of Paris: Knife grinder by Samuel Richardson, 1737
• The Enraged Musician by William Hogarth, 1741
• The Scissors-Grinder by Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich, 1741
• Rome: Ruins of the Forum looking towards the Capitol by Canaletto, 1742
• La Conversation, 1742
• St. James’s in October, the K— in H—, 1750
• A knife-grinder, Paris, second half of the 18th century
• A knife-sharpener in the Cries of Danzig, c. 1765
• Le rémouleur by Nicolas Bernard Lépicié
• Gezicht van de Nieuwe Koren-Beurs, tot Amsterdam, c. 1770-1783
• Cris de Paris: Couteaux, ciseaux à r’passer, 1774-1775
• The Henry VIII Gateway with a view of St George’s Chapel by Paul Sandby, c. 1775
• The knife-grinder
• Drawing of a knife-grinder
• A puppet knife-grinder from the Théatre Séraphin in Paris, c. 1775-1800
• Farmers in conversation
• View of St. George’s Chapel and the Town Gate of Windsor, 1780
• The Blacksmith and Knife Grider with a distant of Sir Ricd Worsleys Pavilion &c in Hyde Park 1780 by Paul Sandby
• Employment during recess, 1786
• A travelling knife-grinder at a cottage door by Thomas Rowlandson, c. 1787
• Picturesque Etchings: 'Huntsmen Visiting the Kennels' and other rural studies by Thomas Rowlandson, 1791; includes a piggery with a knife grinder installed next to it
• Windsor Castle from towards Priest’s Hill by Paul Sandby, 1792
• Cries of London: Knives Scissors and Razors to Grind, 1795
• L'arrotino
• Cries of Edinburgh: Razors, knives, and shears to grind I’m ſure I’ll sharp them to your mind, 1803
• The knife grinder by Jean Baptiste Bernard Coclers
• Knives or Scissors to Grind by Thomas Rowlandson
• A knife-grinder by Jean Duplessi-Bertaux

H/T to Paul Dickfoss for several additions to this page.