New Improved Gillette - New Standard . Chromium?

[MacDaddy]

I could kick myself for missing the end of this auction, but did anyone else happen to catch it? The box and instruction book are pretty obviously from the New Improved era, but take a look at the end flap on that box. I don't believe I've ever heard of any of the New Improved sets being chromed. Am I just out of the loop on that, or is this as strange as I think it is?

 

[DutchmanRiver]

saw it too but i didnt place a bid cause i think i will never come across a new standard in chromium...

 

[Early Morning]

I am surprised the box sold for so little, considering its condition, and the lower half of the box looks restorable.

 

[ras120]

I wonder if the "NEW STANDARD" writing on the box was a mistake and should have been "NEW DE LUXE"? I have never seen or heard of a chrome plated New Improved.

 

[Dools]

I saw it last night, and was going to ask someone. I just thought it was a New that was replated.

 

[Henrik]

..chromium description refers to the box only..? Yeah- I know it´s a long shot.

 

[americanarmsdealer]

..chromium description refers to the box only..? Yeah- I know it´s a long shot.

We may never know since the box was empty. Sure would've been a sweet set either way, though!

 

[alex2363]

I wonder if the "NEW STANDARD" writing on the box was a mistake and should have been "NEW DE LUXE"? I have never seen or heard of a chrome plated New Improved.

That is what i am thinking too, it has to be a typo.

 

[alex2363]

..chromium description refers to the box only..? Yeah- I know it´s a long shot.

So the box is chromium

 

[amishmotorboat]

I'm pretty sure I saw a rather famous in these parts ebay seller auctioning off a chomium new improved recently.
edit: nope, that was a new.

 

[MacDaddy]

I wonder if the "NEW STANDARD" writing on the box was a mistake and should have been "NEW DE LUXE"? I have never seen or heard of a chrome plated New Improved.

Except the NEW DeLuxe packaging was completely different from the New Improved:

..chromium description refers to the box only..? Yeah- I know it´s a long shot.

Now Henrik, you can clearly see that it's made of cardboard.

The New Standard set didn't come in a metal case -- it was the base model leather-cased set.

That is what i am thinking too, it has to be a typo.

I don't think you understand how massive a "typo" like that would have been in the printing methods Gillette would have been using to produce these labels. A spelling error, perhaps, but an entire word substitution especially in titling like that would have been pretty monumental. It actually seems way more likely to me that Gillette might have started trying out chromium as a plating material towards the end of the New Improved line before they started up with the NEWs and we just don't have a record of it yet.

I'm pretty sure I saw a rather famous in these parts ebay seller auctioning off a chomium new improved recently.
edit: nope, that was a new.

I know I've seen some New Improveds in the past that looked almost too shiny to be silver, but I never really paid it any mind -- I never even considered that it might have been chrome. I'll have to keep the old eyes peeled, now...

 

[alex2363]

Except the NEW DeLuxe packaging was completely different from the New Improved:

View attachment 316678



Now Henrik, you can clearly see that it's made of cardboard.

The New Standard set didn't come in a metal case -- it was the base model leather-cased set.



I don't think you understand how massive a "typo" like that would have been in the printing methods Gillette would have been using to produce these labels. A spelling error, perhaps, but an entire word substitution especially in titling like that would have been pretty monumental. It actually seems way more likely to me that Gillette might have started trying out chromium as a plating material towards the end of the New Improved line before they started up with the NEWs and we just don't have a record of it yet.



I know I've seen some New Improveds in the past that looked almost too shiny to be silver, but I never really paid it any mind -- I never even considered that it might have been chrome. I'll have to keep the old eyes peeled, now...

Wouldnt that entail some kind of documentation or record keeping. Gillette just dont produce and market any razor without record keeping or advertising. So far i never seen a ad for this Chromium set at all. Either it was a error that was quickly caught and somehow a printed box was leaked out or found in a Gillette personnel estate or factory. It is impossible that these were made with out any ad or marketing, you know that Gillette was a marketing machine.

 

[MacDaddy]

Wouldnt that entail some kind of documentation or record keeping. Gillette just dont produce and market any razor without record keeping or advertising. So far i never seen a ad for this Chromium set at all. Either it was a error that was quickly caught and somehow a printed box was leaked out or found in a Gillette personnel estate or factory. It is impossible that these were made with out any ad or marketing, you know that Gillette was a marketing machine.

Relatively little of what we know comes from any actual "record keeping" that Gillette did, so it's mostly advertising or catalogs that we'd be talking about here. The problem there is that after the early '20s Google's digitized library switches over to snippet-view only and other sources omit material entirely because the copyrights on that material is still active. (Thank Mickey Mouse for that one.) So online searching becomes much more difficult.

Regardless, an absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence -- that is, just because we may not yet have corroborating material for this single example doesn't mean that it must be incorrect. We obviously can't draw any kind of real conclusion without more information, but a printing error really just seems like a significantly unlikely explanation to me.

 

[alex2363]

Relatively little of what we know comes from any actual "record keeping" that Gillette did, so it's mostly advertising or catalogs that we'd be talking about here. The problem there is that after the early '20s Google's digitized library switches over to snippet-view only and other sources omit material entirely because the copyrights on that material is still active. (Thank Mickey Mouse for that one.) So online searching becomes much more difficult.

Regardless, an absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence -- that is, just because we may not yet have corroborating material for this single example doesn't mean that it must be incorrect. We obviously can't draw any kind of real conclusion without more information, but a printing error really just seems like a significantly unlikely explanation to me.

I see........how about if you check in the Razor Archives, they have bought many of the Gillette rights. Maybe something is in there.

 

[ras120]

It actually seems way more likely to me that Gillette might have started trying out chromium as a plating material towards the end of the New Improved line before they started up with the NEWs and we just don't have a record of it yet.

This sounds pretty reasonable, but you would think someone would have posted a picture of a New Improved that just didn't look like silver to them.

Man, I wonder if we will ever see an end to Gillette oddities?

 

[alex2363]

I just checked with Razor Archives and it seems as the NEW of the 1930's was the only one in Rhodium plate.

 

[Early Morning]

The color scheme on the box is also reminiscent of the ineptly named de Luxe Kro-man stainless steel blades. At two dollars for ten (prior to 1932), the blades were surely the most expensive that Gillette ever made. They may have canceled this version of the New Standard because the word chromium was less familiar than chrome. The blades in that box could not all be originals either.

 

[alex2363]

The color scheme on the box is also reminiscent of the ineptly named de Luxe Kro-man stainless steel blades. At two dollars for ten (prior to 1932), the blades were surely the most expensive that Gillette ever made. They may have canceled this version of the New Standard because the word chromium was less familiar than chrome. The blades in that box could not all be originals either.

I am sure that Gillette would print out the boxes after a market research and test group that all agreed on the most popular or appropriate names. Gillette were one of the foremost marketing and advertising oriented companies in history.

 

[Early Morning]

I am sure that Gillette would print out the boxes after a market research and test group that all agreed on the most popular or appropriate names.

Chromium sounds cool enough, but it seems to be missing from the examples of Gillette's print advertising dating from the 20s. Edit: They sometimes used the term "chromium" instead of chrome during that time period (in the 20s-30s), and so I was mistaken about its common usage. For Example, Ever Ready razors that were plated in chrome were said to be chromium plated.

 

[72plymsatellite]

yea, i forgot about this auction. i would have bid on it if i had remembered. finding something like that is hard and it went cheap.