A little mester is a self-employed worker who rents space in a factory or works from their own workshop. They were involved in making
cutlery
Cutlery (also referred to as silverware, flatware, or tableware) includes any hand implement used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food in Western culture. A person who makes or sells cutlery is called a cutler.
While most cutlers ...
or other smallish items such as edge tools (i.e. woodworking chisels). The term is used almost exclusively to describe the craftsmen of the
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
area, and is mostly archaic as this manner of manufacture peaked in the 19th century and has now virtually died out.
Little mesters either worked alone or employed a small number of workers and/or
apprentice
Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in ...
s.
Stan Shaw
Stan Shaw (born July 14, 1952) is an American actor. He began his career performing on Broadway musicals ''Hair'' and ''Via Galactica'', before making his feature film debut appearing in ''Truck Turner'' (1974). Shaw later appeared in films such ...
, referred to as one of the last little mesters, died in 2021.
History
The origins of the term are uncertain.
''Mester'' is the Sheffield dialect variant of ''master'',
[ (]wikisource
Wikisource is an online wiki-based digital library of free-content source text, textual sources operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole; it is also the name for each instance of that project, one f ...
) Thus a ''little mester'' refers to a
master craftsman
Historically, a master craftsman or master tradesman (sometimes called only master or grandmaster) was a member of a guild. The title survives as the highest professional qualification in craft industries.
In the European guild#organization, gui ...
working on a small scale. Prior to the 18th century cutlery manufacture in Sheffield had been undertaken by individual master craftsmen who would make an item from start to finish. In the late 18th century there was a large increase in the size complexity of the cutlery and tool industries that made it necessary for craftsmen to focus on a single stage of the manufacture.
Cutlery factories then rented workshops to self-employed craftsmen, the little mesters, each specializing in one step of production, such as forging, grinding or finishing.
See also
*
Journeyman
A journeyman is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that field as a fully qualified employee ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Little Mester
History of Sheffield