I know they sold 52 razors the first year and I have searched but are there any pictures or does anyone here have one? I understand they are double ring but would love to see what they look like and the packaging etc. I learned the handle might say pat. pending on it but any info or sources are appreciated.
Looking for info on the first Gillette razors ever made
- Thread starter shavefreak
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Mr Razor has all the razors from Gillette you can think of. He has a world class collection and is indexed for your use. http://www.mr-razor.com/Rasierer/Old Type/1905 Double Ring.JPG
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- #3
Thanks - I assume the 1903 and 1904 razors are the same as the 1905 or he would have had them though I thought I read the early ones came in tins.
Well it was really 51 razors, here is a quick bio:
One day in 1895, a traveling salesman found the edge of his straight razor dulled. King Gillette said that the idea for razor with a disposable blade flashed into his mind . King Gillette had been searching for the right product to build a business. His innovation idea in shaving technology was just such a product. Another safety razor, the Star razor was on the market , but it needed stropping before each use. Gillette envisioned double-edged blade razor and handle that can used until it was dull and discarded.
Gillette spent the next six years trying to perfect his safety razor. Scientists and toolmakers thought the idea impractical. Gillette did not give up. In 1901 business partner William Nickerson (MIT machinist) developed production processes and Gillette formed the American Safety Razor Company to raise $5,000 to make the razor. Gillette became president and production of razor began early in 1903.
American safety razor Co. then became Gillette Safety Razor Company and began advertising its product in October 1903, with the first ad in Systems Magazine. They sold 51 razor sets at $5 each and an additional 168 blades 1st year.
In 1904 Gillette received patent on his safety razor and sales rose to 90,884 razors and 123,648 blades that year. 1905 Gillette bought a six-story building in South Boston. In1906 Gillette paid its first cash dividend. During the years before WW1 Gillette increased earnings through print Ads.
Gillette was expanding abroad and in 1905 opened its first foreign office in London (sales branch). Gillette in 1909 established manufacturing plants in Paris, Montreal, Berlin, and Leicester, England, and offices in France and Hamburg, Germany. Foreign business accounted for about 30% of Gillette's sales.
In 1910 Gillette sold portion of his controlling share to major investor John Joyce. Gillette had succeeded in fighting off challenges for control of the company from Joyce in the past, but this time he just gave up and took approximately $900,000 and bowed out. Gillette retained title of president ( but with no active role in company management). Joyce managed daily operation as vice-president. When Joyce died in 1916, his friend, Edward Aldred bought out the Gillette shares left to Joyce's estate and took control of the company.
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Here is the wiki page with the list of registered double rings owned by B&B members.
http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/Double_Ring
http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/Double_Ring
i may have to update that soon for new double ring owners
....it could be you at the rate u been buying razors
Why not read what the man who made them had to say? Nickerson oversaw engineering and manufacturing of razors and blades, and was in that role from 1901-1928. You might also be interested in http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/Gillette_Timeline on the wiki.
Click through to read the whole article via google books.
Click through to read the whole article via google books.
It's one that's on my list! Just trying to find one that isn't made of solid gold!
I been reading alot of Gillette history from links of the TIMELINE in shave wiki. Right now im reading the Gillette Blade/Canada and the Pelhams international travels as he sold tons of razors abroad. It is a wonderful resource for Gillette history...i thank you and Porter/macdaddy for doing such great work.Why not read what the man who made them had to say? Nickerson oversaw engineering and manufacturing of razors and blades, and was in that role from 1901-1928. You might also be interested in http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/Gillette_Timeline on the wiki.
Click through to read the whole article via google books.
Great information. It's any wonder a lot of single rings are found as those paste white boxes were probably thrown away. It's not clear but there seems to be inscriptions on the later tins or is that the pic?
They do show up here or there or in cigar boxes. This one in theory could have been from 1903 as it has no serial number and is marked "PAT.APL'D.FOR"
You mean they are found lose without a case?
Presumably the pasteboard boxes would have all been double rings. I think the Chicago sales company repackaged them, using boxes like the one Achim photographed above.
Yes. Especially the early prototypes as there wouldn't have been a need to make anything presentable for testing. Later on as they received more positive feedback from the testers then from a business standpoint you'd want to spruce up your image a bit. First impressions and all that.
So your suggesting there was a two step process? Makes sense for international orders coming from say the London sales office where you'd ship out say three thousand in plain white boxes then reinsert then into the nice double ring casss. Lower shipping cost to. But for domestic orders that seems doubtful.
I could be wrong: I often am. As I understand it the Chicago sales company was a completely separate outfit, neither owned nor operated by Gillette proper. In those early days Gillette had no direct sales channel, and no other distribution. So Gillette had little direct incentive to make fancy packaging, but the sales company might have seen good reason to invest in nice boxes.
I'll buy that and that's exactly in line with my thoughts above. Makes sense.
This isn't mine, but it belongs to another collector that I know. I keep holding out hope that I'll find one of these sitting in a shop somewhere... 
This isn't mine, but it belongs to another collector that I know. I keep holding out hope that I'll find one of these sitting in a shop somewhere...
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Ha! I passed about a dozen of those on display. Thought thought they were breath mints.
Seriously that is nice! Wow.
- Thread starter
- #19
That could be the early early first 100 made 52 sold before the Mr. Razor pics. In researching it was said the early ones were in tins, double ring and no ser. no. Plus it is Boston not Chicago, Sweet peice wonder what it's value is. Probably more than a Kampfe 1880 just because Gillette is so huge today.
The Mr razor one looks like the gem/everready boxes that started comming in about that time.
The Mr razor one looks like the gem/everready boxes that started comming in about that time.
This isn't mine, but it belongs to another collector that I know. I keep holding out hope that I'll find one of these sitting in a shop somewhere...
View attachment 310857
I don't know. I think there probably is something to the notion of the leather cases having come from the sales company, and the pasteboard boxes or that tin having been how they were packaged if you got them direct from the manufacturing company. For one thing, if you look at the inscription printed on the lid of the tin it says, "Patented in all of the principal companies of the world." I doubt very much that they'd have put that on before at least the U.S. patent was issued. A good number of the patents in other major countries would have also been issued by then, too.
