Thread: Escher with special instructions

The older Escher hones – The celebrated water razor hones- with the typical cup as trade mark signed E&Co have mostly not been sold in the card board boxes (even I do not have one example and haven’t seen one yet!) as it was typical later with the barber scene labeled hones.


But this cup-hones often came wrapped in red paper with special instructions.




Often you find a warning on the Escher labels, not to buy imitations of less quality.

The instruction on the shown wrapping paper goes a little bit further.





There has been a strong competition between thuringian hones and coticules especially in the 19^th and the early 20^th century. So you can read in the information of these instructions: “These hones should be used especially to replace the many yellow stones of inferior quality still in use known as French or Belgian stones. The use of the latter ones is frequently impaired by the presence of veins, cracks, etc. which never occur in water-hones. Our hones excel these inferior stones as regards fineness and uniformity of grain and structure and in sharpening quality, though they are even cheaper in many cases.”




The instructions are written in 5 languages on the paper: german, france, english, spain, portuguese.

Originally Posted by hatzicho

The older Escher hones – The celebrated water razor hones- with the typical cup as trade mark signed E&Co have mostly not been sold in the card board boxes (even I do not have one example and haven’t seen one yet!) as it was typical later with the barber scene labeled hones.

Here an example of a cup trademark in cardboard box. The stone has the same label on back.

You gotta love the old smear campaign against the Coticules.

I didn't realize these were the older hones, I have always assumed it was the other way around..

How did you figure this out ????

TIA

So Eschers don't give you slurry, they give you slime!

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I didn't realize these were the older hones, I have always assumed it was the other way around..

How did you figure this out ????

TIA

Well I cannot exactly say or prove when the logo changed, there are only a couple of indications.

I have some very old labelled Eschers that did not have any trademark either cup nor barber scene, simply named Escher & Co. The text is much comparable to the cup-labelled ones whereas the text changes much with the barber scene.

Since the Escher company existed several generations long I think, every new member of the family that takes over the control about the company changed the label and sometimes the logo.

If you carefully read the text on the labels, you can figure out changes that are made in consequence of experience or simply differences in wording. The text even gets much longer with the time, the explanations being more precise and detailed. If you compare the german labels you can also see the changes in text because the orthografie of german language has changed over the time.

By looking in the older cataloques from the beginning of 20th century till the end of the Escher company itself -approx. 1930- you only see the barber scene. The barbers scene has also been taken over basically when the company changes the firmation to Escher & son.

This archived thread here, Escher Back Labels, shows a variety of them in a few different designs.

IMO the one with the barber scene with the four men is the oldest of the barber scene labels. The blue cup label, Celebrated Water Razor Hone, may be older, may not.

Note that some of these 4 man barber scene labels do not have the signature. I think that it makes sense to assume that they are older than the labels with the signature.

The labels with the two man barber scene are IMHO the later stones. When used, rinsed under that tap, lapped under running water, those labels will rinse off eventually. The 4 man labels are on there to stay. Even deliberately removing them is all but impossible. The two man require a little bit of soaking and peel right off.

An interesting thing is that the 2 man barber scene hones I suppose are all labelled with J.G. Escher & Sohn. These hones are not common in germany so I think they were mainly produced for export.

Older labels with the 4 man barber scene signed Escher & Co in germany were only in black and white, the red color for frame and decoration comes later, you will see this on the rising prices on the card boxes!
Intersting also that I have no german Escher with the barber scene that is not signed. I think there are more differences with the labels on stones which were intended for export!

Another interesting issue - if you read the above mentioned instruction you won't read that the hones are special for razor honing. You won't even read the word razor anywhere. Fine knifes, instruments and tools is mentioned. On the stones the label itself says celebrated water hone for razors. But I got also cup-labelled celebrated water hones with the same text than the instructions above, means use for razors is not mentioned.
So the first hones sold under the Escher label were not especially sold for razor honing!!
This also is an indication, that the cup-labels are older. The specialisation for honing razors, indicated by the barber scene, comes later.

Originally Posted by hatzicho

An interesting thing is that the 2 man barber scene hones I suppose are all labelled with J.G. Escher & Sohn. These hones are not common in germany so I think they were mainly produced for export.

Older labels with the 4 man barber scene signed Escher & Co in germany were only in black and white, the red color for frame and decoration comes later, you will see this on the rising prices on the card boxes!
Intersting also that I have no german Escher with the barber scene that is not signed. I think there are more differences with the labels on stones which were intended for export!

Another interesting issue - if you read the above mentioned instruction you won't read that the hones are special for razor honing. You won't even read the word razor anywhere. Fine knifes, instruments and tools is mentioned. On the stones the label itself says celebrated water hone for razors. But I got also cup-labelled celebrated water hones with the same text than the instructions above, means use for razors is not mentioned.
So the first hones sold under the Escher label were not especially sold for razor honing!!
This also is an indication, that the cup-labels are older. The specialisation for honing razors, indicated by the barber scene, comes later.

I have seen a couple of barber scene stones in black and white. I once saw a large mint yellow/green with black and white label in a paper box. More interesting was that the yellow/green designation was ink stamped on the top of the hone and there was no end label. It was sold by an ebayer in Germany whose name is Thomas, and he said he was writing a book on Escher stones. This was quite some time ago and I haven't heard anymore about the project. I hope he, or someone else, follows through with it.

One of the things that attracted me to Escher stones in the first place was, AFAIK, they were the only stone specifically stating that they were for honing straight razors. Even if that didn't really mean anything in the real world I have always thought it was cool. So I wonder if that was a later development (probably) or whether they determined that another grade of stone was more suitable for surgical instruments, tools, knives etc. ?

Love all this history on these, my favorite stones. Many thanks for keeping it coming.

Originally Posted by Promitheus

This is another labeled German hone that I sell before three years.
Recently I decide to sell on ebay another vintage labeled Thuringian hone under the trade mark of "Swan" or "SCHUTZMARKE" razor hone.
Enjoy!!!

Welcome to SRP. Nice stone and photos, thanks.