Interesting Pocket Edition

[Sled Dog]

Here is an interesting mis-matched Pocket Edition I recently picked up

Thicker basket weave case (the darker color is reflection not plating loss)

The plain bottom has some corrosion marks on 2 sides..must of sat in something toxic

It is interesting because it is a Gillette USA case and razor head with a Canadian solid smooth ball handle

Serial number E479271 dates the head to early 1918

Nice looking razor

My guess (but I could be wrong) is that the head is correct for the case (1918 Pocket Edition).
It probably came with the standard ball end handle which cracked and was replaced with this solid Canadian handle
Thanks for looking
Kevin

 

[alex2363]

Sounds logical, what else can it be.

 

[TheHammer]

Wow that's a nice set! I've been looking all over for a basket weave case like in that nice of condition...great find!

 

[Sled Dog]

Sounds logical, what else can it be.

I'm not sure if the case is correct for 1918. Perhaps both head and handle are incorrect for the case?? (dont know if the blade case is correct or not also)
Did Gillette make pocket editions during WWI, or were they made by ABC during the war? This is a Gillette case (correct?)
This set came out of France, any chance that this set came like this? Maybe a strange export set??

Heres a few more pics with better lighting

The blade case contained 2 blades, I believe these are dated 1st week of 1920

 

[ERVARGASNY]

She is a beauty mismatch or not, and now you dont ever have to worry about a cracked handle

 

[DEW]

If that is tarnish and is plated with Nickel you can remove the tarnish with water diluted acid and restore it. I had a Fatip gunmetal which was just tarnished Nickel and now it's just shiny Nickel. You can get the details with Google search.

 

[MacDaddy]

I'm not sure if the case is correct for 1918. Perhaps both head and handle are incorrect for the case?? (dont know if the blade case is correct or not also)
Did Gillette make pocket editions during WWI, or were they made by ABC during the war? This is a Gillette case (correct?)

Gillette had definitely switched away from the ABC sets by 1918 and was making the ball-end versions of the Pocket Edition sets in the States. That switch appears to have happened back sometime closer to 1915, give or take. Below is the page from the 1918 catalog that shows your set. You can click through and go to the previous page to see an illustration of the case interior with the "Made in U.S.A." label in the headliner and the cigarette-pack blade case, too. I see no reason to think that anything but the handle is mismatched to that set.

This set came out of France, any chance that this set came like this? Maybe a strange export set??

As far as I know, there wasn't any crossing of the streams between parts like that, no. To give you a little backstory, when the first British plant in Leicester closed it does appear that the plant in Montreal -- where Gillette had recently built a large new building but was leasing out unused space -- expanded to take up the slack. They served much of the demand coming out of Europe until after the war when Gillette was able to get the second British plant in Slough up and running by early 1921. I've found quite a number of Canadian-made sets from this era from sellers in the UK and France in particular, so it's not entirely surprising to see a Canadian handle swapped into a set that most recently came out of France.

You could even imagine a case where someone in France bought an American-made Pocket Edition but the handle had developed a crack, and when they sent it to be replaced the local office only had supply from Canada. Though, of course, you'd have no way to prove it at all, since it's just as possible that someone much more recently took the handle off of a Canadian razor that had had its teeth bent up, to replace a completely split handle in the Pocket Edition and end up with one nice, more or less complete set.

Regardless of how it got there, I'd call the Canadian thin handle a definite upgrade over the original ball-end one anyway.

 

[Sled Dog]

Gillette had definitely switched away from the ABC sets by 1918 and was making the ball-end versions of the Pocket Edition sets in the States. That switch appears to have happened back sometime closer to 1915, give or take. Below is the page from the 1918 catalog that shows your set. You can click through and go to the previous page to see an illustration of the case interior with the "Made in U.S.A." label in the headliner and the cigarette-pack blade case, too. I see no reason to think that anything but the handle is mismatched to that set.

Thank you for the reply and the link, I had missed those catalogs, just spent the last hour going over them, excellent info!!
Part of my confusion was when I looked at Mr Razors site, the only Pocket Edition for 1918 is a ABC set.
Although after looking at those catalogs, it appears that is an earlier case/blade case unless ABC was using old stock in 1918...more confusion
I noticed that the 1918 catalog only listed silver or gold plating, mine appears to be nickle plated..I believe the handle is silver plated.
Interesting backstory, this is the second "smoothball" razor that I have found in France and 1 in the UK (also 1 here in Canada)
Thanks again for your insight, always a good read
Kevin

 

[MacDaddy]

Thank you for the reply and the link, I had been to the Razor Emporium site but had missed those catalogs, just spent the last hour going over them, excellent info!!
Part of my confusion was when I looked at Mr Razors site, the only Pocket Edition for 1918 is a ABC set.
Although after looking at those catalogs, it appears that is an earlier case/blade case unless ABC was using old stock in 1918...more confusion

Perhaps a simpler explanation would be that the guard plate in that set got swapped at some point for a later one. My personal best guess is that Gillette started taking over the complete manufacturing of the Pocket Editions around the same time that they came out with the new Old Type models in 1914. The construction of the Milady Décolletée is basically the same as the ball-end handles -- the hollow tube with press-fit ends -- so it would make sense that they would have been developed in parallel. And certainly by the Christmas season of 1915 the ball-end Pocket Editions were appearing in ads like the one below from The Saturday Evening Post. So even if they phased out the ABC sets over time as they sold through stock, I would think that they'd have certainly been completely switched over by as late as 1918.

I noticed that the 1918 catalog only listed silver or gold plating, mine appears to be nickle plated..

Hmm... Are you saying that just because it's not tarnished or because it looks different in person? It would be hard for me to really have an opinion on that just from the photos, but this would have also been the time that Gillette was doing a fair amount of nickel plating, too. It's possible that they switched over from the silver and their marketing copy was just out of sync.

 

[alex2363]

These are very good theories, i really cant add to these possible theories since i never really collected any of these razors so my personal on hands experience is limited. I really can not comment on the silver, nickel or any plating since i don't have any and i only bought a few of these razors just to shave with not to collect. Collectors like Porter/Macdaddy, Ervargas, Jake, Achim/Mr.Razor,and a few others have on hands experience with rare and unique razors and i would trust their judgement and deductive reasoning. I am recently reading on Gillette history from various sources ( some Macdaddy links) so i can improve my knowledge base and help others better.

 

[Dools]

Very Nice Find!

Thanks for sharing.