Is this a British made single ring?

[Lord Tech]

Found this today in an antique shop. It is a Gillette Old Type single ring with the inner and outer box.
The set looks a lot like the 1917 Old Type 460-B shown on mr. razor page

http://www.mr-razor.com/Rasierer/Old Type/1917 Old Type 460-B.JPG

but it's not the same, because mr. razors razor has the gillette logo and made in U.S.A. on the bottom of the comb. Mine has a small star net to one of the studs.

On the ring above the knob it says:

BR. PAT No. 28763.02

The bottom side of the top plate says

TRADE GILLETTE MARK
KNOWN THE WORLD OVER

with the Gillette diamond

the same is on the top of the comb plate, with also a serial number

H028400

Both the inner box and outer box are very beautiful. The outer box says this razor is only to be sold for one guinea, but the antique shop charged me 35 euros! Did I pay too much? Or did I get a good deal? Anyone knows if this razor is worth anything?

Here are some pics, I have not cleaned the razor yet. Should I use the aluminium foil trick described here?

http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/another-gillette-single-ring-cleaning-picture-heavy.25538/

And what kind of silver polish should I use, just normal silver polish like silvo or a silver polish that leaves a new layer of silver like hg silver polish?

Or maybe I should not clean it at all?

 

[Lord Tech]

some more pics

 

[Mako72]

Beautiful!

And for that price +/- $50ish US I think you did good.I bet there are many here that would pay two or three times that for one that intact.

As for cleaning the aluminum foil trick probably won't get much off, that razor is pretty clean. I would go to a gentle silver polish if its to be a user. As a collector it may be better to keep it as is, but I don't collect so maybe someone else can chime in.

Nice Score!!


Jay

 

[MacDaddy]

Awesome find, and I'd say it was a great deal! I have a British Single ring that's very similar to yours except the serial number isn't stamped on the guard plate, but on the bottom ring of the handle where your patent number and date are. On mine the patent number is inscribed around the top of the barrel instead. I posted a thread on it a while back here.

The star on yours is something I've never seen anywhere else before, though. From the packaging, I would assume that the set was made in England for export to continental Europe. I wonder if the star was a preliminary version of the "G inside D" mark, since the theory there is that it was a mark required in one or more of the European markets for silver plated items.

 

[Lord Tech]

Thanks for the replies! I suppose it is a British made then?
I bought this as a collector's item, I can shave just fine with a beaten up old tech that only costs five euros. I'll probably sell it to a collector some day but I don't know if it will be soon, or when I'm old and who knows, the value may have skyrocketed.
They also had a gold plated Gillette New Type in very good condition, in a very similar inner box, but without an outer box. Don't know if the new's came with an outer box though. But the new costed 40 euros, so I thought 35 for the single ring was a much better deal, especially because I thought the outer box was interesting.
I could have bought both of course, but can't spend all my money on vintage razors! Maybe next time I'm in that town...
So, there is a date code above the knob? I know No 28763 is the british patent number because the Gillette patent numbers are stamped on the bottom of the inner box, so 02 is a date code then?

 

[jbradley]

The star on yours is something I've never seen anywhere else before, though.

On American money, a star at the beginning of the serial number means it was a damaged bill and is a reprint from the mint. Maybe the star means it had to be repaired? I read something months ago about Gillette marking repairs somehow, but I can't recall how.

 

[Lord Tech]

Interesting! Here is a thread on Gillette repair markings, but no star is mentioned
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/146190-Gillette-Repair-Markings
So, could be a mark that is has been repaired, or a mark that it is silver plated.
Or something else! More theories, anyone?

 

[bluesbishop]

That is a gorgeous razor! No clue on the star...

 

[MacDaddy]

On American money, a star at the beginning of the serial number means it was a damaged bill and is a reprint from the mint. Maybe the star means it had to be repaired? I read something months ago about Gillette marking repairs somehow, but I can't recall how.

In the US, at least, they stamped repaired razors with a second serial number starting with an "L." Not saying that you couldn't be right, but the star stamp here seems much more like the "G inside D" mark, even in its placement.

 

[Lord Tech]

That is a gorgeous razor! No clue on the star...
​

Thank you! I guess the little star is the most interesting part then!

 

[Lord Tech]

Another picture of the box

 

[mblakele]

Was "H" known to be used as a UK serial number prefix? At http://mr-razor.com/Rasierer/Old Type/1906-1908 Standard Set England.JPG I see another 'H' serial number, H711612 I think. That seems to be the only numbered one from the UK that Achim has, though. Gillette may have given up on serial numbers after the first million.

On a side note, the guinea pricing interests me. At first I thought it might date the razor to a specific period, but after looking at Achim's collection of advertisements I think that Gillette switched back and forth between "21/" and "1 guinea" depending on the whim of the moment. Both prices were really the same amount of money, but with different implications for class identity.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_(British_coin):

In the Great Recoinage of 1816, the guinea was replaced as the major unit of currency by the pound and in coinage with a sovereign.
Even after the coin ceased to circulate, the name guinea was long used to indicate the amount of 21 shillings (£1.05 in decimalised currency). The guinea had an aristocratic overtone; professional fees and payment for land, horses, art, bespoke tailoring, furniture and other luxury items were often quoted in guineas until a couple of years after decimalisation in 1971.

I think of an old shilling as worth a bit more than a modern pound, so EUR-35 does not sound too bad. If you had 21 old shillings today, I believe they would be worth about EUR-100 in silver alone.

 

[MacDaddy]

Was "H" known to be used as a UK serial number prefix? At http://mr-razor.com/Rasierer/Old Type/1906-1908 Standard Set England.JPG I see another 'H' serial number, H711612 I think. That seems to be the only numbered one from the UK that Achim has, though. Gillette may have given up on serial numbers after the first million.

The one I posted about earlier had a serial number that started with an "E" (below) so I wouldn't say that "H" was specifically a UK prefix in the way the "Y" suffix was used during the New Improved era, for example.

I would assume that WWI was a lot more disruptive in Europe around this whole time frame than it was to American manufacturing. Since we don't have good information outside the American plant, it's also possible that they were following some other scheme that doesn't exactly match up with the American one. I think I may have one or two other British Single Rings somewhere... I'll have to see if I can dig one up and check its serial number, too.

On a side note, the guinea pricing interests me. At first I thought it might date the razor to a specific period, but after looking at Achim's collection of advertisements I think that Gillette switched back and forth between "21/" and "1 guinea" depending on the whim of the moment. Both prices were really the same amount of money, but with different implications for class identity.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_(British_coin):

In the Great Recoinage of 1816, the guinea was replaced as the major unit of currency by the pound and in coinage with a sovereign.
Even after the coin ceased to circulate, the name guinea was long used to indicate the amount of 21 shillings (£1.05 in decimalised currency). The guinea had an aristocratic overtone; professional fees and payment for land, horses, art, bespoke tailoring, furniture and other luxury items were often quoted in guineas until a couple of years after decimalisation in 1971.

I think of an old shilling as worth a bit more than a modern pound, so EUR-35 does not sound too bad. If you had 21 old shillings today, I believe they would be worth about EUR-100 in silver alone.

You may like this thread from a couple months back. There are links there to a site that will calculate changes in value over time using several different methodologies. Also, I mentioned an ad from the late '30s for a man's suit that's on the back of a Gillette ad I have, where the prices are even then quoted in guineas.