Historical information

This item is from a collection donated by descendants of John Francis Turner of Wodonga. Mr. Turner was born on 6 June 1885. He completed all of his schooling at Scotts Boarding School in Albury, New South Wales. On leaving school, he was employed at Dalgety’s, Albury as an auctioneer. In 1924 John was promoted to Manager of the Wodonga Branch of Dalgety’s.
On 15/03/1900 he married Beatrice Neal (born 7/12/1887 and died 7/2/1953) from Collingwood, Victoria. They had 4 daughters – Francis (Nancy), Heather, Jessie and Mary.
In 1920, the family moved from Albury to Wodonga, purchasing their family home “Locherbie” at 169 High Street, Wodonga. "Locherbie" still stands in Wodonga in 2022. The collection contains items used by the Turner family during their life in Wodonga.

This "lady’s" fruit knife was used up to the late 1900's by influential and "well off" ladies, not only as a fashion statement but as a practical tool when away from the kitchen/home to peel fruit and provide a cutting instrument for small items. The first true stainless steel was melted on August 13,1913. However, it did not produce blades that held an edge nor could edges be put onto blades easily so its inventor, Harry Brealey soon earned the reputation of being the inventor of the "knife that would not cut". Over the following decade further developments to the composition of stainless steel led to its wide use in the manufacture of cutlery.

Physical description

A small fruit knife with stainless steel blade. It has an ivory handle and a leather cover for the blade.

Inscriptions & markings

On blade: Stainless Steel"