The Amway Aftershave Thread

[TheVez2]

After recently inheriting some of my Grandfather’s Amway aftershave (See pic below, and story here) I have a new interest in learning about and collecting vintage Amway shaving stuff. My Grandfather worked at Amway and was involved with designing and procuring materials to produce these decanters. This thread is for posting pictures of any Amway aftershaves you have found (also cologne or soap of the same scent), and any information that can be dug up, or memories that you have about them.

Note: This thread is for discussion of Amway products only, not to discuss the company or its marketing/selling practices.



From my research, I have turned up the following aftershave scents. The trademark info was verified on the US Patent and Trademark Office’s website. It is included to provide a general timeline of production.


Vintage

Caliber
Trademark:
Filed 17 Feb 60, Registered 4 Oct 60, Serial Number: US72091106.
Status: Cancelled-Section 8, 14 Oct 01.

Known products:
Aftershave.

Known decanters:
Gramophone – 4 oz., square brown glass with plastic (record player) top.

Silver Surf
Trademark:
Filed 16 Jul 65, Registered 23 Aug 66, Serial Number: US72223492.
Status: Expired, 18 Jan 89.

Known products:
Aftershave.

Known decanters:
Glass bottle – 4oz., clear glass. B&B member SuperChris posted his bottle here. Pic below.

Points North
Trademark:
Filed 3 Jun 71, Registered 17 Oct 72, Serial Number: US72393810.
Status: Expired, 26 Jul 93.

Known products:
Aftershave, Balm, Cologne, Soap .

Known decanters:
World Globe – 6 oz., green glass globe on square black plastic base.
Glass bottle – 4 oz., cube-shaped clear glass, round topper, aftershave or cologne.
Glass bottle – 6oz., cylindrical white glass, contains balm.

Charter Club
Trademark:
Filed 18 Apr 74, Registered 16 Dec 75, Serial Number: US73019302.
Status: Expired, 23 Sep 96.

Known products:
Aftershave.

Known decanters:
Glass bottle – 4 oz., rectangular clear glass with Charter Club’s “C” logo on it.

Tonga
Trademark:
Filed 20 Apr 81, Registered 14 Jun 83, Serial Number: US73306702.
Status: Cancelled-Section 8, 20 Mar 04.

I have seen auction site listings for Tonga soap with a box dated 1980 and Tonga cologne with a box dated 1967. Both boxes said Tonga [SUB]TM[/SUB], but maybe the date refers to something else.

Known products:
Aftershave, “After Shower Lotion”, Balm, Cologne, Deodorant, Soap.

Known decanters:
Powder Flask – 4oz., antique iridescent colored glass, shaped like a powder flask for a civil war era gun. May have come in a set with a glass Colt pistol.
Tiki Bottle – 6oz., clear glass, shaped like a tiki. Contained After Shower Lotion.
Glass bottles – various bottles, 4oz. and 6oz., cylindrical or slightly barrel shaped, clear or white glass, with or without tiki design on it. Aftershave, cologne, or balm.



Invictus
Trademark:
Filed 29 Sep 82, Registered 15 May 84, Serial Number: US73393359.
Status: Cancelled-Section 8, 19 Feb 05.

Known products:
Cologne.

Known decanters:



Olympus
Trademark:
Filed 25 May 84, Registered: Not Available, Serial Number: US73482163.
Status: Abandoned - After Inter-Partes Decision, 26 Jun 85.

Known products:
None – Assumed to have not been produced, due to no registered trademark.



Wind Quest
Trademark:
Filed 30 Sep 85, Registered 13 May 86, Serial Number: US73560801.
Status: Cancelled-Section 8, 17 Feb 07.

Known products:
None, I have not been able to verify it exists.



Mentor
Trademark:
Filed 7 Mar 91, Registered 24 Nov 92, Serial Number: US74145269.
Status: Cancelled-Section 8, 31 May 99.

Known products:
None, I have not been able to verify it exists.

La Collection Classique
Trademark:
Filed 16 Dec 91, Registered 7 Dec 93, Serial Number: US74230298.
Status: Cancelled-Section 8, 29 Dec 00.

Known products:
Aftershave, Cologne.

Known decanters:
Glass Bottle – 3.3oz., frosted glass bottles, cap offset from center.



Modern

Tolsom
Trademark:
Filed 14 Aug 02, Registered 13 Jun 06, Serial Number: US78153958.
Status: Section 8 & 15-Accepted and Acknowledged.

Known products:
Aftershave, Shave Gel, Skin Smoothing Gel, Facial Cleansing Lotion, Skin Protective Lotion w/SPF 15.

Dynamite
Produced in India for the international market. Not distributed within the US.

Known products:
Aftershave, Balm, Deodorant, Hair Cream, Shaving Cream, Shaving Foam.



Decanter Pictures

From my Grandfather’s collection:
L-R: Gramophone (production model w/ brown glass), Powder Flask, Gramophone (prototype w/clear glass)

Silver Surf – Pic borrowed from SuperChris

A vintage ad from an Amway publication. Shows the Caliber Grammophone, A Points North bottle and soap, and some of the Tonga products.

Tiki bottle found on this website.

Anybody have anything else to share? I'm getting a few more bottles off eBay and will update the thread with pics as I get them.

 

[TonyJoe]

The story of your grandfather's association with Amway was really neat. This thread solves a mystery for me. I purchased a bottle from an antique store to decant some aftershave. I got it simply because it had a built-in reducer. Looks like it was a Tonga bottle. The cap still smells faintly like Clubman/Wild Country/Canoe.

 

[TheVez2]

Nice Tiki bottle! That one is definitely awesome. Glad i could solve a mystery for you. I concur, Tonga does smell very similar to the clubman/wild country/canoe scents. I'm now making it my mission to collect as many Amway bottles as I can.

 

[DJDeez]

I got it simply because it had a built-in reducer.

Pardon my ignorance, what is a reducer?

This thread has been interesting to say the least, I always thought Amway was a newer company and had no idea their catalogue was this detailed!

 

[TheVez2]

A reducer is just a reduced diameter neck, to control the flow. You can shake out a few drops rather than dumping out a ton. Some glass bottles were designed that way, others have a plastic reducer inserted in the neck.

Amway started in 1959, so it's not "new", but I really don't think it's terribly old either for as large as it is. I guess it all in how you look at it.

 

[TheVez2]

Amway World Globe Decanter, empty, contained Points North aftershave.

 

[Luke49783]

Really interesting, I had no idea that Amway made vintage shaving stuff, though I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It's interesting to see some of the names as well. Wind Quest is also the name of one of the founding family's investment/holding companies.

 

[TheVez2]

WindQuest is also the name of their Racing Yacht:

 

[SmoovD]

Nice thread, KJ. A nice read on an interesting piece of Americana.

 

[Luke49783]

WindQuest is also the name of their Racing Yacht:

His summer house is down the road from me, I'll have to watch to see if that's docked out front.

 

[TheVez2]

It's interesting to see some of the names as well.

Any other names of interest aside from WindQuest? It would be interesting to learn if there is any more backstory to the names.

Nice thread, KJ. A nice read on an interesting piece of Americana.

Thanks, I'm hoping to learn a lot more and really flesh this thread out. There just isn't too much on the web. I'm hoping some of our members can help.

 

[Luke49783]

I'll take a look at this thread again when I get home this afternoon. I can't see most of the pictures due to the sites that they're hosted on being blocked on my work computer. I'm wondering if the Amway World Globe Decanter is modeled after the sculpture that sits in front of their headquarters.

 

[TheVez2]

I'm wondering if the Amway World Globe Decanter is modeled after the sculpture that sits in front of their headquarters.

My thought as well. Seeing it in person, they are nearly identical in design. As soon as I first saw the decanter, the sculpture in front of the headquarters building is exactly what I thought of. I grew up near there, and my Parents both work there.

 

[Luke49783]

My thought as well. Seeing it in person, they are nearly identical in design. As soon as I first saw the decanter, the sculpture in front of the headquarters building is exactly what I thought of. I grew up near there, and my Parents both work there.

Yep, completely agree, that's it! I don't recognize any of the other bottles or names as being associated with the rest of their empire.

 

[Tasman]

Yep, completely agree, that's it! I don't recognize any of the other bottles or names as being associated with the rest of their empire.

Hi there, a friend gave me a few bottles of after shave for Christmas and I've only just realised they are 40 years old. Unfortunately the Charter club is missing about 10mls and neither have their boxes but I was wondering if they were worth anything???. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and regards Tasman.

 

[TheVez2]

... few bottles of after shave for Christmas and I've only just realised they are 40 years old. Unfortunately the Charter club is missing about 10mls and neither have their boxes but I was wondering if they were worth anything?

Got any pics? I'd love to see what you have. Most of the info I have dug up is already in this thread. There's not much info out there. As far as value, I can't really say. Vintage Amway stuff is somewhat rare, it's not nearly as abundant as Avon. But it's also not that well known, so there's not too many people collecting it. I grew up near the Amway world headquarters and my family worked there (My Grandpa helped start the company), so it has a special place in my heart. But most people have never heard of it.

 

[redrider_99]

This is a cool thread. My parents sold Amway when I was a little kid. My dad has been using electrics forever though, so I doubt he used any of the shaving products.

 

[DCRIII]

This is an interesting thread and glad I found it. I just picked up a bottle of the Tonga today at a antique stores in Dixon, California. It looks to be almost if not completely full. I also noticed in the beginning of this thread that it has been discontinued, but was unclear as to what year it stopped being made. Any insight on its discontinued year would be awesome. The above description of it smelling like a cross between clubman and wild country is pretty dead on. Anyway, hear is a picture of it.

 

[TheVez2]

All the info I found on dates is in the OP. It's not exact, but gives you a ballpark.

 

[GoneRetroInOH]

Amway, of all things. Nuttin' said.