Very nice razors!
The immediate post-war era was very difficult in the United Kingdom, far worse than in the US because there was quite a bit of industry bombed into oblivion unlike in the US.
Production changeover in the US was rough -- many plants had been converted to military production and no work at all was done on civilian products beyond bare minimums after 1941 -- in the UK since 1939. Machinery and molds, presses, materials, and so forth got scattered and lost, skilled workers had moved on, etc.
Most manufacturers simply started producing whatever they had been before the war for which dies, jigs, and tooling had not be lost or converted, often with left over parts stored since the war started. I'm quite sure Gillette was scrambling to produce anything for sale, including the luxury market, and whatever was available in numbers to meet demand was assembled and shipped. I'm sure there were other unusual items only made for a year or two while conversion to civilian manufacture occurred. Foutains pens are similar, there are a lot of "hybrid" ones out there using a mix of pre and post war parts, and strange things like solid silver caps rather than stainless steel, simply because silver was available (not a war material) and stainless was not (it was a war material). Brass wasn't available at all.
Same thing happened during the Korean war -- those aluminum and steel handle Super Speeds weren't a choice, same thing for the black knob version (bakelite vs plated brass). More brass was used for shell casing between 1950 and early 1953 than between 1941 and 1945 by the US military, and brass shortages occurred again during the late 60's and early 70's due to Viet Nam.
Anyway, we get to enjoy some rare and unusual razors as a result, even if it's impossible to find any production information for them!
The immediate post-war era was very difficult in the United Kingdom, far worse than in the US because there was quite a bit of industry bombed into oblivion unlike in the US.
Production changeover in the US was rough -- many plants had been converted to military production and no work at all was done on civilian products beyond bare minimums after 1941 -- in the UK since 1939. Machinery and molds, presses, materials, and so forth got scattered and lost, skilled workers had moved on, etc.
Most manufacturers simply started producing whatever they had been before the war for which dies, jigs, and tooling had not be lost or converted, often with left over parts stored since the war started. I'm quite sure Gillette was scrambling to produce anything for sale, including the luxury market, and whatever was available in numbers to meet demand was assembled and shipped. I'm sure there were other unusual items only made for a year or two while conversion to civilian manufacture occurred. Foutains pens are similar, there are a lot of "hybrid" ones out there using a mix of pre and post war parts, and strange things like solid silver caps rather than stainless steel, simply because silver was available (not a war material) and stainless was not (it was a war material). Brass wasn't available at all.
Same thing happened during the Korean war -- those aluminum and steel handle Super Speeds weren't a choice, same thing for the black knob version (bakelite vs plated brass). More brass was used for shell casing between 1950 and early 1953 than between 1941 and 1945 by the US military, and brass shortages occurred again during the late 60's and early 70's due to Viet Nam.
Anyway, we get to enjoy some rare and unusual razors as a result, even if it's impossible to find any production information for them!
