STAR eye candy. Original documents inside

[Skarkowtsky]

Hi guys,

As promised, scans of a catalog page, circa 1900-1909 with the entire STAR line-up. Note on page 2 that the only razor frame to be sterling silver is the ELITE set, also complete with Ivory handles. All other sets are Nickel. I also provided details of our favorite TIN, as well as what I believe to be the most beautiful set, the FAVORITE TRAVELING. I own the FAVORITE, seven-day (top right, page 2).

 

[Sled Dog]

Excellent!!! That is really cool!!
Thanks for posting them!

 

[rxonmymind]

$30! That's a cool set of coins for a razor. Wow. Average pay was 22-30 cents an hour while a Dr could be expected to make "roughly" $2,000-$3,000 a year. Wonder how many Elite set's they sold?

 

[gearchow]

Never seen a catalog of Stars before. Fantastic! And isn't there a difference in "silver plate" and "sterling silver", the latter being the better?

-jim

 

[Skarkowtsky]

You're correct. That was a typo on my part. The catalog says 'sterling silver'.

 

[gearchow]

Wouldn't that be a fantastic item to find on some dusty, vintage mall shelf?

Your "Favorite" isn't any slouch either. I kind of feel sad for my little tin can Stars.

I had thought that Sterling would have commanded a even bigger price gap. Silver plated Gillette's of the time weren't expensive.

-jim

 

[Skarkowtsky]

Well, considering that an automobile could be purchased for &650, $30 for a tiny razor wasn't too cheap, haha! I have really nice automobile ads from that era, too. Beauties!

Although the tins certainly the economical choices, their design was outstanding. I still want a tin set. The set that sold on eBay in Feb was in near mint condition, and is also what catapulted me into this culture. Went for too high a price for me, however.

 

[stvince71]

Thanks for sharing Skarkowtsky. Good know what my set was called finally. Now to get my hands on an Elite set to go with my No. 20 Star set.

 

[malocchio]

Thanks for posting this,really great nostalgia...you had to be a real "robber baron" to be able to shell out $30 USD in those days,and that's when our money was actually backed up in gold and silver !

 

[RocketMan]

Those are very nice. Thank you for posting them.

 

[facetime]

Very, very cool. thanks for sharing images. Now if I could only find those razors

 

[shavefreak]

I've gotta find you a copy of that Kampfe book. It has copies of the full Kampfe Star 1896, 1902, and 1906 catalog.

The "complete outfit" is something to see but the travelling is a super nice set, I hope to snag one some day. Last one I saw on Ebay went for a ton, but yet a lot less than some Gillette stuff.

Is this American Steel's catalog you scanned in? Where did you find it?

 

[Zagnut]

Beautiful pics. I love the old-timey catalog stuff.

Adjusted for inflation, that $30 set would cost $755.10!

 

[Skarkowtsky]

Thanks guys! This was scanned from a Pacific Hardware of San Francisco catalog page. I bought it off eBay. I'd love a copy of the Kampfe Book, ShaveFreak!