Is there more information on these other than wikipedia and the B&B wiki. I've always been curious what motivated someone to invent one? Who invented them? Are they a modification of a paintbrush or toothbrush? (Speaking of paint brushes did the Chinese invent all animal hair brushes or did the Romans and Greeks also invent them). If hard shaving soaps were only invented in 19th century why did shaving brushes predate them since most creams were probably able to be applied without a brush. Anybody have any info?
Shaving Brush History
- Thread starter back_to_shaving
- Start date
following...
These kinds of details are lost to history. We can speculate. The ancestor of the shaving brush is not likely the paintbrush, but the bathing brush. Take Northern Europe for example. The history of the sauna/bathhouse there is very ancient. Traditionally, people would clean themselves using bundles of green twigs from birch trees, etc. Bristle brushes came about later as a byproduct of slaughtering animals for food, and were used for cleaning, scrubbing, etc. Once they figured out how to make bristle brushes, new applications for them were discovered.
Soft soap predates hard soap. It goes back at least to ~2000 BC. Celtic people in Europe knew how to make soap prior to their encounters with the Romans.
What motivated someone to use a shaving brush? Prior to the shaving brush, the soap was lathered and applied by hand. Barbers found they could make a better lather and get better results with a brush. Who, where, exactly we don't really know.
Soft soap predates hard soap. It goes back at least to ~2000 BC. Celtic people in Europe knew how to make soap prior to their encounters with the Romans.
What motivated someone to use a shaving brush? Prior to the shaving brush, the soap was lathered and applied by hand. Barbers found they could make a better lather and get better results with a brush. Who, where, exactly we don't really know.
- Thread starter
- #4
I would have for sure though hard soap came first.
Also what is a bathing brush?
Do we know when Bristle brushes came about? And where?
Shaving brushes I believe started in France or possibly in Hungary before that.
Also is there a relation between the shape of straights and kamisoris? Or is is just converglution?ent eco
I agree with @Atlantic59, very little is known about where they came from and how people have started to use them in daily basis. Yet I always think like every work of art may contain informations about the period in which it is created. So, at this point it may be right to check works of literature and art. Some articles state that the history of shaving brush started in France in 1750’s and when we take a look at one of the oldest firms that would produce different kinds of brushes, the theory sounds logical. For example, Kent has been crafting shaving brushes for 243 years. Yeah, you’ve heard it right. For 243 years! Which means that it was established in 1777. But how that happened? I mean it was a rainy day in France in 1750 and The French once got up, and voila, the shaving brush was made! This kind of information does not satisfy me, and when you read about the history of shaving brushes, I want you to read carefully the part in which they tell you that shaving brush came up in 1750’s. You will most probably see that they can not cite any source for this information.
What if I tell you that a brush that people would use in barbershops (And I don’t know, if the term ‘Barber shop’ perfectly suits here, because the barbers at that time would even make a surgery. So to say that they were ‘the first doctors in hometown’ would probably right) might have come up even earlier? Abraham Teniers is a Flemish painter and engraver who lived from 1629 to 1670 (“British Museum”, n.d.)[1] and made his contribution to the spread of the genre of Singerie which means “a depiction of monkeys engaged in playful activities, often dressed in human clothes and acting out human roles” (Singerie, in Oxford Refence)[2]. And one of Abraham Teniers’ paintings (Barbershop mit Affen und Katzen [Barbershop with monkeys and cats]) that is made somewhere between 1647-1648 drew my attention. When you take a look at it carefully, you can see a detail which is related to our topic. Let’s take a look:
The detail about which I was talking is under the window on the left. And as we can see the shaving brush was not alone: There are also a comb and a scissors.
That little detail made me think like “Oh, then the idea of a shaving brush did not come up just in a night in France”. Then we see another painter that lived not that far away from where Abraham Teniers was born. Isaac Koedijck (1618-1668) is a Dutch painter that lived and died in Amsterdam.[3] In his work (Barber-surgeon tending a peasant’s foot or The Barber-surgeon) that he has made in 1649-1650 another little detail draws our attention again. And again it is on the left and it is under the window. I think this would tell us something: The idea of a shaving brush is as early as the first half of 17th century.
[1] British Museum. (n.d.). Abraham Teniers. URL: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG48173
[2] singerie. Oxford Reference. Retrieved 20th Jan. 2021, from singerie - https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100507950
[3] Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie. (1992, January 11th). Discover painter, merchant Isaac Koedijck. URL: Discover painter, merchant Isaac Koedijck - https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/45254
What if I tell you that a brush that people would use in barbershops (And I don’t know, if the term ‘Barber shop’ perfectly suits here, because the barbers at that time would even make a surgery. So to say that they were ‘the first doctors in hometown’ would probably right) might have come up even earlier? Abraham Teniers is a Flemish painter and engraver who lived from 1629 to 1670 (“British Museum”, n.d.)[1] and made his contribution to the spread of the genre of Singerie which means “a depiction of monkeys engaged in playful activities, often dressed in human clothes and acting out human roles” (Singerie, in Oxford Refence)[2]. And one of Abraham Teniers’ paintings (Barbershop mit Affen und Katzen [Barbershop with monkeys and cats]) that is made somewhere between 1647-1648 drew my attention. When you take a look at it carefully, you can see a detail which is related to our topic. Let’s take a look:
The detail about which I was talking is under the window on the left. And as we can see the shaving brush was not alone: There are also a comb and a scissors.
That little detail made me think like “Oh, then the idea of a shaving brush did not come up just in a night in France”. Then we see another painter that lived not that far away from where Abraham Teniers was born. Isaac Koedijck (1618-1668) is a Dutch painter that lived and died in Amsterdam.[3] In his work (Barber-surgeon tending a peasant’s foot or The Barber-surgeon) that he has made in 1649-1650 another little detail draws our attention again. And again it is on the left and it is under the window. I think this would tell us something: The idea of a shaving brush is as early as the first half of 17th century.
[1] British Museum. (n.d.). Abraham Teniers. URL: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG48173
[2] singerie. Oxford Reference. Retrieved 20th Jan. 2021, from singerie - https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100507950
[3] Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie. (1992, January 11th). Discover painter, merchant Isaac Koedijck. URL: Discover painter, merchant Isaac Koedijck - https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/45254
Last edited:
Ron R
I survived a lathey foreman
Plisson shave brushes of France is one of the oldest brush manufactures still in business that had it's roots back in 1808.
Are you certain those brushes are shaving brushes, though? I wonder if they're not used for some other purpose (e.g., brushing hair off a client after a haircut).
Yes indeed!
I was trying to explain to my young niece that there was a time before the Internet and Google. She thought I was making things up!!
History of the shaving brush
Little is known about the history of the shave brush. Wikipedia states that "The modern shaving brush may be traced to France during the 1750s" but cites no sources for this information. [main
www.badgerandblade.com
Owen Bawn
Garden party cupcake scented
I haven't the time to search out the source, but RA Rooney claimed that they were making shaving brushes at their factory on the Corrib River near Galway City in the C18, and that they were the oldest commercial manufacturer of shaving brushes in the world.
That Rooney manufactured brushes in Galway prior to 1800 is beyond question, but as I recall I've never seen evidence that they actually produced shaving brushes prior to moving to London in the C19.
That Rooney manufactured brushes in Galway prior to 1800 is beyond question, but as I recall I've never seen evidence that they actually produced shaving brushes prior to moving to London in the C19.
History of the shaving brush
Little is known about the history of the shave brush. Wikipedia states that "The modern shaving brush may be traced to France during the 1750s" but cites no sources for this information. [main
+1. This thread could be the best source about shaving brushes' history IMO. It has introduced Koedijck and his work to me, but as far as I could find, Abraham Teniers' work comes before his work as I have described in my post.
Lefonque
Even more clueless than you
Interesting stuff! Maybe Tony Robinson will dig up one if they bring time team back.
Here are some beauties right from the history:
Here in Turkey in 2017 Zeytinburnu Belediyesi (The word 'Zeytinburnu' literally translates as 'Olive Cape' and its a municipality [Tr.: belediye] on the European side of Istanbul) has published a book called "Mahallemizin İlk Sağlıkçıları: Berberler" (which we may translate as "First Sanitarians of Our Neighborhood: Barbers". Thanks to collections of Halûk Perk and Ahmet Yamaç it was possible to compile such a book. And these pictures above was taken right from the book. I'll be giving you a full citation and link to the book. It's completely free and officialy published by Zeytinburnu Municipality. Although the book is written in Turkish, I am sure that you will find a lot of interesting pictures from history itself. This book may even inspirate some of razor equipment producers that read our B&B forum to reproduce things from history.
Perk, H., & Yamaç, A. (2017). Mahallemizin ilk saglikcilari. Zeytinburnu Belediyesi. URL: http://www.zeytinburnu.istanbul/Document/FileManager/Berberler.pdf
Here in Turkey in 2017 Zeytinburnu Belediyesi (The word 'Zeytinburnu' literally translates as 'Olive Cape' and its a municipality [Tr.: belediye] on the European side of Istanbul) has published a book called "Mahallemizin İlk Sağlıkçıları: Berberler" (which we may translate as "First Sanitarians of Our Neighborhood: Barbers". Thanks to collections of Halûk Perk and Ahmet Yamaç it was possible to compile such a book. And these pictures above was taken right from the book. I'll be giving you a full citation and link to the book. It's completely free and officialy published by Zeytinburnu Municipality. Although the book is written in Turkish, I am sure that you will find a lot of interesting pictures from history itself. This book may even inspirate some of razor equipment producers that read our B&B forum to reproduce things from history.
Perk, H., & Yamaç, A. (2017). Mahallemizin ilk saglikcilari. Zeytinburnu Belediyesi. URL: http://www.zeytinburnu.istanbul/Document/FileManager/Berberler.pdf
Owen Bawn
Garden party cupcake scented
I believe @ChiefBroom has some dog-eared old yellowed pages from a magazine that tell the early history of RA Rooney in some detail; I seem to remember it was produced by Rooney themselves. I can't remember where he posted it, as it was some time ago. Perhaps he'll post the pages here if and when he has the chance?
Would be great to read!
@Owen Bawn I actually found those dog-eared yellow pages about Rooney. It was posted on another forum by Ken himself. I can even make a post here which would include a brief history of Rooney Shaving Brushes. But If I have to talk about Rooney's, then I should talk about the Mysterious Man Sabini, there are also a lot of posts about him on the internet. That would be a long post. And most of them would be based on what Ken said about Rooney's or Sabini. I really want to make it real, but let's see how things will play out.
By the way here are those old pages that you have been probably mentioning about. It's all posted by Ken. Based on what's written on these pages, we can say that Rooney could be older than Kent or Plisson. @ChiefBroom
By the way here are those old pages that you have been probably mentioning about. It's all posted by Ken. Based on what's written on these pages, we can say that Rooney could be older than Kent or Plisson. @ChiefBroom
