Metropolis Razor...Anyone Ever Seen One?

[LiveOak]

I was watching this auction on ebay and had thoughts of bidding, but it shot up to almost $300 dollars at the end.

It's a beautiful razor. I believe it's Italian, but I could not find any info on the brand at all. Have any of you seen (or maybe have) one like this? Anyone here the lucky winner?

 

[Leopold Bloom]

A few hours ago on Ebay one of these sold for nearly $300 dollars, I had been watching it as it was the most striking DE razor I have yet to see, with a beautiful green interior on the case.

I googled it but literally one thing came up which was an ad for one with no pictures from a Missouri site, was deleted but the asking price was $15 dollars.

Is this from Gillette with the Metropolis theme? Are they very rare? Not sure if I can link ebay items after they have ended?

 

[dpm802]

It is fair game to post links to eBay auctions that have ended.

I just went looking for the one you describe, but couldn't find it.

Yes, please post the link. You have our curiousities up.

Edit: a little googling led me to this cute ad for Schick Quattro.
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/jwt-schick-power-of-four

 

[Leopold Bloom]

Jesus, I just posted a thread on this exact topic after seeing it on ebay. I will delete mine, absolutley stunning razor, I bid $100 but it went straight to near 4300 on the last second.

 

[Leopold Bloom]

http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=261044360112#ht_500wt_945

There's the link. There is another thread about this, maybe a merge is in order!

 

[LiveOak]

It is beautiful. I had $115 ready to try and snipe, but once it went up I just watched. Style-wise I would put it up next to a Darwin.

 

[Leopold Bloom]

They seem to also be a blade make or brand, as the only other thing I found was an ashtray on ebay which must have been a promotional item for Lametta' Metropolis blades. Seems Italian?

 

[Intrigued]

I was watching it also. It certainly is a beautiful looking razor and case.

 

[Doppelgaenger]

The razor does indeed seem to be italian, but I'm under the impression that this is a Gillette razor.

King Gillette had a grand idea for people to live in a big multi level city powered by a waterfall that was going to be called Metropolis. Makes sense for a gillette razor to have that name, but what is it doing on an italian razor? (it IS italian)

 

[alex2363]

Jesus, I just posted a thread on this exact topic after seeing it on ebay. I will delete mine, absolutley stunning razor, I bid $100 but it went straight to near 4300 on the last second.

$4,3000? or it ended at $294

 

[celestino]

Holy cow that is a beauty! Another open-comb!

 

[alex2363]

They are Italian made, very sweet lookers, theres a few more styles too

 

[jamesspo]

The head does look very much like the New Improved, but could certainly be a copy. Will be interested to hear if anyone else has more info.

The razor does indeed seem to be italian, but I'm under the impression that this is a Gillette razor.

King Gillette had a grand idea for people to live in a big multi level city powered by a waterfall that was going to be called Metropolis. Makes sense for a gillette razor to have that name, but what is it doing on an italian razor? (it IS italian)

 

[Leopold Bloom]

$4,3000? or it ended at $294

Heh, sorry, $300. It's nice but not 4 grand nice.

This is the only other thing I have found related to the brand.

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Antique-Lame...aultDomain_0&hash=item3cc78a77eb#ht_500wt_945

A promotional ashtray.

 

[mblakele]

Nice-looking piece. The handle looks like the baldacchino at St Peter's basilica.

The name is probably just a coincidence, I think. The head reminds me less of a Gillette than of a Fa Tip, because of the long curved comb. The case reminds me faintly of a Merkur / Hoffritz / Pomco, and so does one of the pictures Alex posted. The other looks a bit like a Rotbart - maybe they contracted out the manufacturing?

Just possibly the maker had read King Camp's book, but more likely it was picked because they wanted a name that sounded sophisticated. If there were any connection to the book by King Camp, I would expect the skyline on the case to look more like this:

 

[alex2363]

They seem to also be a blade make or brand, as the only other thing I found was an ashtray on ebay which must have been a promotional item for Lametta' Metropolis blades. Seems Italian?

lameta means metal plate or razor blade in Italian

 

[alex2363]

Heh, sorry, $300. It's nice but not 4 grand nice.

This is the only other thing I have found related to the brand.

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Antique-Lame...aultDomain_0&hash=item3cc78a77eb#ht_500wt_945

A promotional ashtray.

pretty blue color

 

[alex2363]

Nice-looking piece. The handle looks like the baldacchino at St Peter's basilica.

The name is probably just a coincidence, I think. The head reminds me less of a Gillette than of a Fa Tip, because of the long curved comb. The case reminds me faintly of a Merkur / Hoffritz / Pomco, and so does one of the pictures Alex posted. The other looks a bit like a Rotbart - maybe they contracted out the manufacturing?

Just possibly the maker had read King Camp's book, but more likely it was picked because they wanted a name that sounded sophisticated. If there were any connection to the book by King Camp, I would expect the skyline on the case to look more like this:

that is a viable theory...here is a link to the proposed metropolis

.http://www.library.cornell.edu/Reps/DOCS/gillette.htm

 

[Leopold Bloom]

They are Italian made, very sweet lookers, theres a few more styles too

How rare would you say they are?

 

[alex2363]

How rare would you say they are?

not many are around, I haven't seen many and no body here at B&B have really made any threads on it..........they seem to be rare but value wise I'm am not sure i would not pay more than 200 bucks