This past weekend, I dropped by a antique store and found what I thought was an odd shaped junk straight razor (picture below). It was filthy and had a set of flat scales. On second look, it had very little honing-wear, no chips and the flat scales were horn. These aspects, plus a bit of RAD, resulted in my buying it for $US15.80 and taking it home to clean it up.
I did a bit of research and learned that Gelle Freres of Paris had a substantial catalogue of products including straight razors. My understanding is that more than likely never manufactured razors, but contracted established firms to make and label their razors. I'm assuming that "Paris Fabricants" indicates that it was made on Paris. It's a great shave, nice steel and is 7/8ths at the toe.
I assume that it was manufactured without a tail, but I have rarely seen this design. The scales are horn, the spacer appears to be bone and the pins are perfectly rounded without washers (which I assume indicates they were applied by a machine rather than a pinning hammer)
The labelling including the city but not the country leaves me to assume it is pre-1891 (i.e. due to the Madrid Trade Accord requiring Country to be named). The Tang Stamp appears to be struck rather than etched, but I don't know if this necessarily makes it pre-1860 (My understanding is that some cutlers like Wade & Butcher tended to move to etching tang stamps around 1850s). My guess is the style of pinning will have a significance in its age.
I'm hoping for some input on the age as well as the odd design of not having a tail.
I did a bit of research and learned that Gelle Freres of Paris had a substantial catalogue of products including straight razors. My understanding is that more than likely never manufactured razors, but contracted established firms to make and label their razors. I'm assuming that "Paris Fabricants" indicates that it was made on Paris. It's a great shave, nice steel and is 7/8ths at the toe.
I assume that it was manufactured without a tail, but I have rarely seen this design. The scales are horn, the spacer appears to be bone and the pins are perfectly rounded without washers (which I assume indicates they were applied by a machine rather than a pinning hammer)
The labelling including the city but not the country leaves me to assume it is pre-1891 (i.e. due to the Madrid Trade Accord requiring Country to be named). The Tang Stamp appears to be struck rather than etched, but I don't know if this necessarily makes it pre-1860 (My understanding is that some cutlers like Wade & Butcher tended to move to etching tang stamps around 1850s). My guess is the style of pinning will have a significance in its age.
I'm hoping for some input on the age as well as the odd design of not having a tail.
