Vintage Yardley stick and cool bakelite holder

[Sled Dog]

Scored this cool bakelite Yardley shave stick container.

Inside is this unusual bullet shaped stick

It has a texture like deodorant?? But I tried it on my hand and used my brush, it seemed to build a nice lather....

I can see Yardley in the tin foil, so I assume this stick belongs in the holder

There seems to be old soap scum on the outside..

Looks old

I havent been able to find much info on this..
I did see an eBay ad for a container saying it was from the 30's
Can anyone help date this? If it is from the 30's-40's..could this be the original stick??
It does have an unusual shape and texture, although it sure has retained its fragrance, its quite strong actually!

Any ideas?

Thanx
Kevin

 

[Sled Dog]

Well I just finished shaving with it....
Soaked the end of the stick in hot water for 30 seconds or so..rubbed it on my face.
Took my brush to it and it lathered up very nicely.
Used a Gillette NEW with a Astra SP (3rd shave) and had a really nice shave...did 3 passes but 2 probably would of been fine.
Smells great, builds a really nice lather and shaves nice and smooth...I'm going to assume the funny looking bullet stick is a shaving stick

 

[Vlad]

Nice score! Any scent left? Does it smell tallowy, clay-ish?

 

[kingfisher]

Nice score! Any scent left? Does it smell tallowy, clay-ish?

In his earlier post he said it still had quite a strong scent.


Agree that it's an awesome score, moreso for the container than for the soap, IMO. The fact that the soap is a nicely functioning shave soap is the cherry on top of the sundae.

 

[mblakele]

Good find, and I am sure it shaves well. 1930s sounds like a good guess, or possibly as late as the 1950s. Williams had moved to catalin by 1932. Is the container a twist-up or a push-up, or something else?

It looks like Yardley originally introduced their stick in a glass case, around 1908 according to Pharmaceutical Journal for 1908-10-31.



At the time, I think most companies used leather-covered tins. I have a vague memory of someone finding an old stick in glass, but I cannot find the thread now. Anyway the Yardley stick was still in glass in 1915, but probably moved to catalin or bakelite in the 1930s. It seems to be mentioned in 1949 in The New Yorker, Volume 20, Part 4 (snippet view only): http://books.google.com/books?id=8ywdAQAAMAAJ, so it was still available then - and probably in the same packaging. By this time there were very few shaving stick ads, though, so it is difficult to say exactly when Yardley discontinued their stick. For example, by 1955 the stick did not appear in any of the Christmas gift sets pictured in Life: http://books.google.com/books?id=fD8EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA111&pg=PA111#v=onepage&q&f=false. Possibly they wanted to avoid confusion with the new deodorant stick.

 

[drocu]

Very nice find. I agree that it has an odd shape to it for a shave stick.

 

[Mike'sWorld]

Is the stick original to the container?
It sure looks like it. When I look at possible mismatched vintage pieces, I ask does it looks right, and this does. The soap stick and container are equally aged, fit perfectly and both look like they've seen very little use.
Congrats on the find, use up the soap and refill it with a modern soap. Restore this beautiful case to its original function, that is holding a high quality shave soap stick.

 

[Toddy]

I would guess it dates from the 1930s. Almost certainly pre-war. There was also a similar container in brown Bakelite.

Later versions came in a white acrylic holder with brown cap

 

[Techichi]

That container is flippin' awesome.

 

[NexlevMM]

Sweet find!