NEW De Luxe Criterion question

[HoosierTrooper]

I was at a get together at the in-laws yesterday evening and met one of their neighbors showed me his collection of razors. The one that really caught my eye was a NEW De Luxe Criterion. The case was pretty rough but the razor and blade case were in mint condition, the razor had a very, very small crack in the handle which was it's only real flaw.

It had serial number 107480 stamped on the blade bed, and I haven't had much luck finding what year that was produced in. The Wiki only says that the De Luxe models made in the 30's had serial numbers but they don't have them in the chart.

Any help would be appreciated because I told him I could find out the year of manufacture for him using the serial number.

 

[MacDaddy]

I dont know of any resource for actually lining up the DeLuxe serials with specific years, but from what Krumholz says they had stopped serial-numbered DeLuxe production by February of 1931. So assuming that's accurate you can probably still narrow it down to most likely 1930, with just a bit of '29 or '31 on either end.

 

[Rasierhobel]

imo you are not able to determine the year of a criterion with serial number. my ones have 137397 and 22152. your one is definitly pre 35/36 and post 29 cause only in this timeframe the new deluxes have SNs

 

[HoosierTrooper]

OK, thanks fellas.

 

[mr-razor]

I believe from Oct.16 1930 to Feb.1931 they comes with sn. DeLuxe without sn are from 1935/36

 

[MacDaddy]

I believe from Oct.16 1930 to Feb.1931 they comes with sn. DeLuxe without sn are from 1935/36

Hey Achim, where'd that Oct 16, 1930 date come from? That's not one that I've heard before.

 

[mr-razor]

Hey Achim, where'd that Oct 16, 1930 date come from? That's not one that I've heard before.

Hey Porter, you are right: it´s my mistake. I misunderstood the Krumholz book page 202 (my poor english )

 

[swamps]

I had been trying to date mine for a bit but just couldn't figure it so if it has a serial number then it dates between 29 and 31 good to know so at least i can put mine in that time frame but what it like to ask is there any way of dating the brit 2 piece deluxe's i know achim has one on his site that dates from 1935 so would they have only been made in 1935.???

 

[MacDaddy]

Hey Porter, you are right: it´s my mistake. I misunderstood the Krumholz book page 202 (my poor english )

Ah, I see what you were looking at there. For everyone else's benefit, Krumholz says that the end of the serial numbered NEW DeLuxes came not long after the AutoStrop merger (which is where that Oct 16, 1930 date comes in) and definitely no later than Feb 1, 1931.

Und dein Englisch ist viel besser als mein Deutsch. Mein Lehrer, Herr Schneider, würde sehr enttäuscht sein.

I had been trying to date mine for a bit but just couldn't figure it so if it has a serial number then it dates between 29 and 31 good to know so at least i can put mine in that time frame

From the information I'm aware of the highest likelihood would be 1930, with some smaller amount of production in 1929 and probably a very small amount in 1931. The announcement of the NEW razors and blades happened in October of 1929 (I believe this was likely within the trade publications, advertising to the store owners who would be the ones ordering stock) but heavy public advertising didn't seem to start until around May of 1930. Krumholz also suggests that there was some test marketing of the NEW designs during 1929, which would make sense, but still would make a 1929 production date much less common I would think. And assuming that he's also right about the end of production, you'd only have, at most, the month of January in 1931 for serial numbered DeLuxes to have been produced.

But it's still possible that it could be anywhere in that range.

but what it like to ask is there any way of dating the brit 2 piece deluxe's i know achim has one on his site that dates from 1935 so would they have only been made in 1935.???

This is tougher... I don't have anything like a definitive answer here, but if we can extrapolate that Gillette started doing the two-piece design across their whole line around the same time, Achim has this ad showing the Criterion, alongside the No.88 and No.77, with what looks like might be a crimped handle, but it'd be difficult to say anything definitive there since the descriptions for the other two specifically talk about the new design while the Criterion's doesn't:

In any case, even if they didn't adapt the Criterion's and Belmont's design that early on I would imagine that it wasn't much later than that.

As for when they stopped, I can't find anything terribly helpful there but if I were putting money on it I'd say they didn't last much long after the Aristocrats came out. As you can see in this other ad of Achim's from the 1936 Christmas season, the Aristocrat has taken the top spot beside the No.88 and No.77 sets:

 

[millerman]

Thanks for asking for me, HoosierTrooper. I'm on board now. Still figuring things out. I might use the pic. of the Criterion as my avatar. I love that razor. I've decided I'm going to do a restoration on the case. I'll take a bunch of pics.

 

[HoosierTrooper]

Hey, good to see you Mike. When you get a chance definitely put some pictures of that razor up here.

 

[CubReporter]

Also, it's good to see my future brother-in-law on B&B! Glad you're here, Mike!