British Gold Tuckaway Set - anybody seen one before?

[Mark1966]

The mail person (not sure you can say man anymore!) has been good to me.

Box a little worn

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but look at the text on the top - 'Pat. in Great Britain'

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Like the British Bostonians this is clear that the case and blades are made in the U.S.A. but the 'holder' is made in England

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I have to go back and check but the instruction book looks a little different too

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The interior of the case is marked that it is made in the USA too

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The razor or holder is clearly made in England though with the British patent number too.

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I'm told that it was present to 'Kev' (a very Australian abbreviation for Kevin) by his father (PA being another Aussie term) on his return from the war in 1948

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I'm VERY happy to be the current custodian of Kevin's razor and am looking to track down more information if I can. All these pics are pre-cleaning too BTW.

Just when I was getting a little bored with collecting these two new additions come along!

 

[almaga]

Very Nice.....

 

[ironfist]

Nice set mark, i have the silver tuckaway, ill need to check it

 

[Dools]

Beautiful!!

 

[coolbus18]

Quite nice. Enjoy.

 

[MacDaddy]

Wait... 1948? That set would have most likely been somewhere north of 20 years old at that point. The skeptic in me really wonders if someone just added that inscription later to make the piece more "interesting" without knowing anything about the Gillette timeline. Of course, if I tell than skeptic to shut his filthy pie hole, I still wonder what the circumstances would have been to have had this set just sitting around intact for all those years before being given as a gift.

On the whole "Case made in U.S.A" thing, my assumption is that it was very probably a way to avoid paying some sort of import duty on goods coming into the Commonwealth.

Really cool set, Mark.

 

[Mark1966]

Wait... 1948? That set would have most likely been somewhere north of 20 years old at that point. The skeptic in me really wonders if someone just added that inscription later to make the piece more "interesting" without knowing anything about the Gillette timeline. Of course, if I tell than skeptic to shut his filthy pie hole, I still wonder what the circumstances would have been to have had this set just sitting around intact for all those years before being given as a gift.

Gee Porter, where have you been? I was waiting for somebody to chime in about the date!

I've not had the chance to check the UK Patent details yet but I presume it was around the time of the US one - so the 1920s. This would make this about 20 years old as you say when given as a gift in 1948. Would a father give his son a second hand razor on his return from the war? Unlikely I'd suggest. So I put some credence on this being 'NOS' in 1948. While the war undoubtedly mess up supplies and manufacturing this is VERY pre-war, the Brits were producing the #77 and #88 sets and the #15 and #16s before the war - so why did this one survive? Found at the back of a shop display maybe?

I'm trying to get more information from the seller to see if I can shed any light on this.

On the whole "Case made in U.S.A" thing, my assumption is that it was very probably a way to avoid paying some sort of import duty on goods coming into the Commonwealth.

Really cool set, Mark.

Yes I've seen the 'Case made in the U.S.A' before. I've not seen a British Tuckaway though and are hoping others will come forward if they have seen one.

 

[ironfist]

Yes I've seen the 'Case made in the U.S.A' before. I've not seen a British Tuckaway though and are hoping others will come forward if they have seen one.

Boo checked mine, 'Made in USA'

 

[Mark1966]

Boo checked mine, 'Made in USA'

As are my others !

Thanks for checking

 

[MacDaddy]

I don't have one, but I'd swear I've seen 'em made in England here on B&B before. Achim's got this New Improved Milady Décolletée set on his site that's much the same -- razor made in England, everything else apparently made in the U.S.:

Is your razor numbered, Mark? I'd expect a British New Improved head to carry a "Y" series number. And yes, as far as I know they would have been from the same timeframe as the American ones (1921-29) but we don't know exactly how their serials line up.

 

[alex2363]

Wait... 1948? That set would have most likely been somewhere north of 20 years old at that point. The skeptic in me really wonders if someone just added that inscription later to make the piece more "interesting" without knowing anything about the Gillette timeline. Of course, if I tell than skeptic to shut his filthy pie hole, I still wonder what the circumstances would have been to have had this set just sitting around intact for all those years before being given as a gift.

On the whole "Case made in U.S.A" thing, my assumption is that it was very probably a way to avoid paying some sort of import duty on goods coming into the Commonwealth.

Really cool set, Mark.

Thats a good theory Porter, whoever did it they replicated the exact print lettering.

 

[alex2363]

I don't have one, but I'd swear I've seen 'em made in England here on B&B before. Achim's got this New Improved Milady Décolletée set on his site that's much the same -- razor made in England, everything else apparently made in the U.S.:


Is your razor numbered, Mark? I'd expect a British New Improved head to carry a "Y" series number. And yes, as far as I know they would have been from the same timeframe as the American ones (1921-29) but we don't know exactly how their serials line up.

Would that be cost effective? I mean making the parts in different countries.

 

[MacDaddy]

Thats a good theory Porter, whoever did it they replicated the exact print lettering.

No not the one on the razor; the engraved message on the case, which is where 1948 enters the picture:

Would that be cost effective? I mean making the parts in different countries.

It certainly would appear so, since Gillette kept it up for decades, well into the plastic case era.

 

[alex2363]

No not the one on the razor; the engraved message on the case, which is where 1948 enters the picture:

View attachment 321590

oh, thanks for clearing that up.

It certainly would appear so, since Gillette kept it up for decades, well into the plastic case era.

I know, but Gillette did have factory in England, why not just make them there.

 

[Mark1966]

I don't have one, but I'd swear I've seen 'em made in England here on B&B before. Achim's got this New Improved Milady Décolletée set on his site that's much the same -- razor made in England, everything else apparently made in the U.S.

Yes and I have a British Bostonian in my collection as show in this thread and sold a different one as well - so the practice was common enough.

I've just not seen a British version of the Tuckaway although the razor is very similar if not the same as that Milady.

Is your razor numbered, Mark? I'd expect a British New Improved head to carry a "Y" series number. And yes, as far as I know they would have been from the same timeframe as the American ones (1921-29) but we don't know exactly how their serials line up.

Yes it is numbered (in a very odd manner - a wavy line of numbers!) with the S/N 189515Y

 

[mblakele]

Very nice set. No serial number, I take it?

Wavy like this one from Achim?



Twenty years is a long time, but I find it plausible if the razor was exported to the Australian market. Things were bad in Australia even before the worldwide depression hit. Whoever had the razor in his shop might have hid it as a theft risk, then forgotten about it until much later. After the war heated up and almost all of Australia's young men went off to fight, there was probably even less risk of it selling.

 

[alex2363]

Yes and I have a British Bostonian in my collection as show in this thread and sold a different one as well - so the practice was common enough.

I've just not seen a British version of the Tuckaway although the razor is very similar if not the same as that Milady.




Yes it is numbered (in a very odd manner - a wavy line of numbers!) with the S/N 189515Y

 

[ERVARGASNY]

Very nice Mark, Congrats )

 

[Mark1966]

Very nice set. No serial number, I take it?

Wavy like this one from Achim?

Yes, but probably worse.

Twenty years is a long time, but I find it plausible if the razor was exported to the Australian market. Things were bad in Australia even before the worldwide depression hit. Whoever had the razor in his shop might have hid it as a theft risk, then forgotten about it until much later. After the war heated up and almost all of Australia's young men went off to fight, there was probably even less risk of it selling.

Backwards? Are you calling us backwards? We might be upside down Down Under but not backwards

During the 1930s the Great Depression would probably have made these difficult to sell. The British Bostonian in my other thread was presented as a trophy in 1929 and had the serial number of 144296Y - a slightly lower number and thus earlier if they were sequential.

The Bostonian obviously didn't go to war and nor did this one, I would suspect that it was kept in the shop and sold as NOS in 1948.

What is of more confusion to me is what happened to this post-war. On 15 August 1945 Japan surrendered, signalling the end of the war in the Pacific yet this wasn't given as a gift until 1948. EDIT: Just done some research and the demobilisation of the Australian Army was not completed until late 1947. So a gift in (early) 1948 would seem appropriate

I can't prove that at this point but hopefully my inquiries might shed some more light on the history.

 

[mblakele]

Backwards? Are you calling us backwards? We might be upside down Down Under but not backwards

Not at all: quite the contrary. From what I have read, Australia was deep in economic depression well before the rest of the world. They led the way!

During the 1930s the Great Depression would probably have made these difficult to sell. The British Bostonian in my other thread was presented as a trophy in 1929 and had the serial number of 144296Y - a slightly lower number and thus earlier if they were sequential.

The Bostonian obviously didn't go to war and nor did this one, I would suspect that it was kept in the shop and sold as NOS in 1948.

What is of more confusion to me is what happened to this post-war. On 15 August 1945 Japan surrendered, signalling the end of the war in the Pacific yet this wasn't given as a gift until 1948. EDIT: Just done some research and the demobilisation of the Australian Army was not completed until late 1947. So a gift in (early) 1948 would seem appropriate

I can't prove that at this point but hopefully my inquiries might shed some more light on the history.

That sounds like a good theory to me.