Which Le Grelot bell came first?

[blackman]

So I have two Le Grelots and both have different bell symbols. My question is which symbol came first? The remnants of the etching on the top blade has the year 1931 on it, although I'm unsure if that's a manufacturing date or not. I'd love to figure out when these were made, roughly. Any ideas? Thanks guys.

 

[kirk 988]

ive never noticed the different bells in picures before i thought that all had the top bell. ill have to pay more attention. ah no AD has kicked in so i dont own a LG

 

[mdunn]

Let's see some bigger pics of both kinds and see if we can't tell the age from blade design etc?

Here is my 'simple bell' grelot for reference

 

[Greybeard]

1931 is the year that Hospital & Cie won the gold medal for their razors at the Paris Colonial Exposition.
They subsequently used the mark "Medaille D'Or Paris 1931" on most of their razors as marketing. It just means your razor was made after 1931. There is no definitive date as to when they stopped using the mark.
The company name changed from Hospital & Cie to P. Hospital & Cie sometime around 1934. At some point they stopped using P. Hospital on their razors and just used Le Grelot. I haven't found a definitive date as to when that occurred.
P. Hospital & Cie ceased razor production in 1984. Thiers-Issard purchased part of the company in 1996. They purchased the remainder of the company, including all their old inventory, in 2002.
The bell on the bottom razor is almost certainly the more recent. It is virtually identical to the bell mark found on the old blanks that Thiers-Issard ground and sold under their name. None of P. Hospital's pre -1960 trademark registrations shows that type of bell.

 

[mdunn]

Just noticed that the bell on mine is slightly different to the OP's simple bell.

we need a larger sample size here, fellas!

 

[Wid]

Here's pic of mine.

 

[BakerAndBadger]

Useless fact but vaguely related: jingle bells in French was renamed Petits Grelots!
That's all folks.

 

[Greybeard]

Pardon the lousy photographs and the oil on the blades.

1931 to 1934 13/16 Hospital Medaille D'Or Le Grelot.





1934 to 1966 5/8 P. Hospital Royal Canada Le Grelot. Probably earlier than 1966, but can't be newer since the Royal Canada etching changed in 1966.

 

[Greybeard]

Thiers Issard 6/8 Le Grelot.

 

[Greybeard]

Here's pic of mine.

P. Hospital Royal Canada razors used the 193 grind/style blade

 

[kirk 988]

this has been a very interesting thread and ive learned some facts that i didnt know so its been a good day.

 

[Wid]

P. Hospital Royal Canada razors used the 193 grind/style blade

So, this could have been slated to be such a razor?

 

[Greybeard]

So, this could have been slated to be such a razor?

Yes. There may have been other models that used the 193 blade but I haven't come across any. My Royal Canada is stamped 193 on the back. The registration paper for the trademark shows a line drawing of the blade with 193 handwritten above it.

 

[Wid]

Thanks for the info Peter, quite interesting.

 

[Mike H]

Le Grelot Hospital "Le Grelot Marquee", worked spine # 342

 

[blackman]

Nice. Thanks for all the awesome info. It looks to me that mdunn's and Peter's first blade seem to be the oldest. That's just my opinion though. Also opinion, but if I had to put money on it I would say my top blade was made before the bottom one.

Here's a better profile of the two.

 

[Alum of Potash]

I'm curious about the scales in the top pic with German writing. Were these added later?

 

[blackman]

Yeah they're not original. I jokingly refer to that blade as Le Doppelschmied Grelot. The scales are quite nice, imo. The pics don't do them justice.

 

[dakotaev]

One more to help, I've since sold this one but I believe it was a a later model due to the style of the pins and scale material:

 

[Grips]

P. Hospital Royal Canada razors used the 193 grind/style blade

I recently bought a Royal Canada from johnmrson. Beautiful shaving blade. Is there anything particular about the 193 grind that is note-worthy ?