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British Aristocrat Collection

Here is my collection of British Aristocrats.

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Both 15's, left is rhodium, right is silver.

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The 66, one of my favorites.

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The 16.

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The 21.

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The DeLuxe, definitely the center piece.

Anyway, thanks for looking! I am very proud of my collection.
 
I had to remove tarnish from the silver.

That's kind of intereseting because I have the same two #15 razors as you (British and French market versions), and both arrived to me with nary a spot of tarnish. As you can see in the pictures, the plating on the two #15s looks identical to the #66 in the middle, but in the second picture, you can see that the Popular model (which is silver plated and came out at the same time as the #15) looks decidedly darker (the difference doesn't show that well in the picture, but it is far more noticeable in person), and it did come to me with a bit of tarnish on it. I wonder if Gillette plated them in both metals?

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So would you say that rhodium never has any tarnish, and that if there is tarnish the razor is silver-plated? Seems that all my "rhodium-plated" razors show tarnish when cleaned with Maas or Flitz but I just figured it was a result of age and moisture exposure.

Would be interesting if there were some exacting method for determining whether the plating is rhodium or silver. Any suggestions?
 
Woah. What's the popular? I hadn't seen it till today

The Popular was basically a lighter version of the #15, with an actually fancier bulldog knurling. It was, I believe, made in four versions: Silver plated in a blue Bakelite case (#45), gold plated in a cream Bakelite case (#46), silver plated in a chrome plated case (#47), and a French set that had a silver plated head with a black handle in a cream or white Bakelite case.

Here is the silver plated model in comparison to a #15.

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So would you say that rhodium never has any tarnish, and that if there is tarnish the razor is silver-plated? Seems that all my "rhodium-plated" razors show tarnish when cleaned with Maas or Flitz but I just figured it was a result of age and moisture exposure.

Would be interesting if there were some exacting method for determining whether the plating is rhodium or silver. Any suggestions?

Interesting point, because I don't believe rhodium is tarnish proof, just highly tarnish resistant. Usually you can tell one from the other by the color (rhodium looks bright white), but I think only an examination by a jeweler could determine for certain.
 
I´m not sure, but I believe the silver plated brit. Aristocrat comes 1936 and was only called "Aristocrat". 1938 he was rhodium plated and called #15 Aristocrat:

1936:
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1938:
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Wow...you learn something new everyday...I hadn't even seen a popular till now and I thought I'd been doing my research. Are they particularly rare or something?
 
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