Gentlemen, when one moves into the true rarity cabinet one cannot be choosy about the condition. My razor friend Adam (@romsitsa) alerted me to this beat up but very rare #15 British Aristocrat set holding a standard 2nd generation rhodium razor in a very special dark brown leather clad case in pigskin, sporting two nickel plated blade holders inside.
A rarely seen case design - and an interesting hypothesis on its origins...
The same case design was seen earlier in the 1930s #19 and #20 Aristocrat sets, though with different color schemes, but no one really knows where this particular #15 2nd generation combination originally came from. We know that 2nd generation Aristocrat razors came out around 1948, so maybe this is yet another of those infamous British Gillette instances of “we have a bunch of these old surplus case parts, let’s make another case design and get them used up...”. This hypothetic story might actually be likely as this #15 set as said was made only a few years after the end of WWII where Gillette may have had problems sourcing material for new parts.
No matter what the story is, only very very few specimens surface nowadays.
A stunning restoration by @romsitsa
When I got this set the case was in the same sad condition as most other Gillette #15/#19/#20 pigskin clad cases we see today. The leather exterior coat was very thin to begin with, and most have invariably dried up and cracked over the many decades gone by since. This case even arrived buck naked, with someone having removed all traces of the outer leather. The case was pretty banged up in general, spring broken, but it still showed its unique insides with two nickel plated blade holders.
So you can imagine that I was stoked when Adam offered to take a stab at a refurbishment. As some of you know from seeing a few threads from him here Adam is a genuine restauration wizard. So it took me roughly 1 second to accept his kind offer!
Photos of the journey from Wreck to Wonder
So here goes a few photos of Adam’s impressive refurbishment process, taking this case and set from wreck to wonder. The photos overall are a testament to his skills.
Here’s a sneak peak on the final result - but I really suggest that you read through the chronological picture journey in this post before you feast your eyes ...
For starters Adam found leather to match the original exterior dark brown color(!), and he replaced the spring and corrrected the various dents and bruises done to the case by time and previous owners. As for the insides we decided to use donor cases to harvest better condition inside linen/cloth, because that superb refurbished exterior deserved to have insides to match.
We took much care to find coloring and material matching the original, starting with two donor cases I had sitting around myself. However these sadly got lost in the mail between our two countries so we were back to square one. But then by wonder I managed to score a third for cheap on the UK bay (thanks @tonich/Andon!) which had great insides, a.o. with a good condition logo imprint in the lid.
So here it is - many hours of Adam’s superb efforts later. I am over the moon with following this project process and with the final result, and I am so grateful to Adam for doing this. Looking at the photo of an original model apperance you can see that Adam has done true magic bringing this case back to its full fomer glory!
This is the original look (not my razor/set)
The wreck - this is what the case started like
A rarely seen case design - and an interesting hypothesis on its origins...
The same case design was seen earlier in the 1930s #19 and #20 Aristocrat sets, though with different color schemes, but no one really knows where this particular #15 2nd generation combination originally came from. We know that 2nd generation Aristocrat razors came out around 1948, so maybe this is yet another of those infamous British Gillette instances of “we have a bunch of these old surplus case parts, let’s make another case design and get them used up...”. This hypothetic story might actually be likely as this #15 set as said was made only a few years after the end of WWII where Gillette may have had problems sourcing material for new parts.
No matter what the story is, only very very few specimens surface nowadays.
A stunning restoration by @romsitsa
When I got this set the case was in the same sad condition as most other Gillette #15/#19/#20 pigskin clad cases we see today. The leather exterior coat was very thin to begin with, and most have invariably dried up and cracked over the many decades gone by since. This case even arrived buck naked, with someone having removed all traces of the outer leather. The case was pretty banged up in general, spring broken, but it still showed its unique insides with two nickel plated blade holders.
So you can imagine that I was stoked when Adam offered to take a stab at a refurbishment. As some of you know from seeing a few threads from him here Adam is a genuine restauration wizard. So it took me roughly 1 second to accept his kind offer!
Photos of the journey from Wreck to Wonder
So here goes a few photos of Adam’s impressive refurbishment process, taking this case and set from wreck to wonder. The photos overall are a testament to his skills.
Here’s a sneak peak on the final result - but I really suggest that you read through the chronological picture journey in this post before you feast your eyes ...
For starters Adam found leather to match the original exterior dark brown color(!), and he replaced the spring and corrrected the various dents and bruises done to the case by time and previous owners. As for the insides we decided to use donor cases to harvest better condition inside linen/cloth, because that superb refurbished exterior deserved to have insides to match.
We took much care to find coloring and material matching the original, starting with two donor cases I had sitting around myself. However these sadly got lost in the mail between our two countries so we were back to square one. But then by wonder I managed to score a third for cheap on the UK bay (thanks @tonich/Andon!) which had great insides, a.o. with a good condition logo imprint in the lid.
So here it is - many hours of Adam’s superb efforts later. I am over the moon with following this project process and with the final result, and I am so grateful to Adam for doing this. Looking at the photo of an original model apperance you can see that Adam has done true magic bringing this case back to its full fomer glory!
This is the original look (not my razor/set)
The wreck - this is what the case started like
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