Vintage Imperial IKCO Cutlery Letter Opener and 50 similar items

Up for bid is a vintage Imperial Cutlery Company promotional combination letter opener, folding pocket knife. The Imperial Knife Company was founded in 1916 by Felix Michael Mirando who were immigrants from Itally. The original home of the company was in Providence, Rhode Island. Both Felix Michael started in the US knife business as employees of the Empire Knife Company located in Winsted Connecticut. The Imperial Knife Company eventually grew to become the largest knife manufacturer in the United States. They were a high volume manufacturer with a knack of creating efficiencies in the manufacturing process to create good quality products at affordable prices. When military knives became high demand products for WWII, Imperial merged with Ulster focused on manufacturing military knives. Albert M. Henry Baer were heavily involved in the consolidation the Baers would eventually buy merge Imperial with Schrade others. The Imperial brand name continued to exist until 1988, when they were discontinued and replaced by the Schrade name. 1916 ? 1930s: Early Imperial products are quite rare and might simply be stamped with ?Imperial? or ?Imperial Prov. R.I.? denoting their place of manufacture in Providence, Rhode Island. 1936 ? 1956: The tang stamp would sometimes include the phrase ?Imperial Prov. R.I. U.S.A.? with a picture of a crown above the Imperial name.