So I bid on a listing for a Hoffritz butterscotch brush with a matching bakelite travel case. Looked interesting in the post and the travel case got my attention. I love bakelite, ever since collecting vintage art deco Australian valve radios while living in Melbourne, and I wanted a travel brush with a case. The posting said it was 2.5 inches tall. Silly me, I thought "it" was the brush and I thought "great, a nice small travel brush with a lovely turned bakelite case, sounds perfect". So I made a modest bid and forgot about it and turns out I won it.
A week later it shows up and I open the box. Imagine my surprise when I unwrap a little butterscotch bakelite tube about 2.5 inches tall and 1.25 inches in diameter. Confused, I unscrewed the end cap of the nicely tooled case and out pops the smallest, cutest little brush I had ever seen. It was then recollections of posts on Wee Scot brushes came to mind, but this was Hoffritz, not Simpson. So I soaked it in Lysol and started to clean it when I saw some wording and I just made out "ot" at the end of one of the words. I googled Wee Scot and found some pictures and lo and behold, I was in possession of a lovely vintage bakelite Hoffritz badged Simpson Wee Scot and matching travel tube. But small, did I say small, my god this was smaller than I had imagined. More reading and I find out that there are two sizes of Wee Scot, and this was the small one, let's call it a Nano Scot. It has a total length of about 59 mm, a best badger knot with a diameter of about 12 mm and total loft of 32 mm. It is positively lilliputian next to my largest butter brush.
Next morning I had to try it out of course, and it works remarkably well. Got one and a half passes worth of lather in one tiny brushfull, a nice creamy lather and it was very precise in lathering up. The brush appears to have been little used, and truth be told it is so small it is a little tedious lathering, so I don't think I'll be using this one often, it will just become a remarkable and very pretty addition to my already too large collection of brushes. I'm still amazed that a company put so much thought and quality into something that is mostly a novelty, but I can imagine these being given out at trade shows or as presents to sales reps or store buyers. The quality of the tooling is baffling and it is a lovely little piece of history.
A week later it shows up and I open the box. Imagine my surprise when I unwrap a little butterscotch bakelite tube about 2.5 inches tall and 1.25 inches in diameter. Confused, I unscrewed the end cap of the nicely tooled case and out pops the smallest, cutest little brush I had ever seen. It was then recollections of posts on Wee Scot brushes came to mind, but this was Hoffritz, not Simpson. So I soaked it in Lysol and started to clean it when I saw some wording and I just made out "ot" at the end of one of the words. I googled Wee Scot and found some pictures and lo and behold, I was in possession of a lovely vintage bakelite Hoffritz badged Simpson Wee Scot and matching travel tube. But small, did I say small, my god this was smaller than I had imagined. More reading and I find out that there are two sizes of Wee Scot, and this was the small one, let's call it a Nano Scot. It has a total length of about 59 mm, a best badger knot with a diameter of about 12 mm and total loft of 32 mm. It is positively lilliputian next to my largest butter brush.
Next morning I had to try it out of course, and it works remarkably well. Got one and a half passes worth of lather in one tiny brushfull, a nice creamy lather and it was very precise in lathering up. The brush appears to have been little used, and truth be told it is so small it is a little tedious lathering, so I don't think I'll be using this one often, it will just become a remarkable and very pretty addition to my already too large collection of brushes. I'm still amazed that a company put so much thought and quality into something that is mostly a novelty, but I can imagine these being given out at trade shows or as presents to sales reps or store buyers. The quality of the tooling is baffling and it is a lovely little piece of history.
