Thread: That 1700's Show

Samuel Norris

Pryor


Hague

Originally Posted by kcb5150

Samuel Norris

Oh hey buddy from the other forum!

I believe this belongs here, and evidently NOT in the 'dip at tails' (i still have NO ability to see a dip vs no dip)...pics from ebay. A beautiful GERMAN STEEL Sam Norris.





p.S: i'd TOTALLY watch a TV show called "the 1700s show"

A post on B&B forum made me realize smthg, and I'm curious: a lot of the razors on here are much older than the ones i've posted so how many of you guys actually USE these? Or at least have them in a condition that can be reasonably used for shaving? Esp. the ones that are early 1700s and 1600s.

Also...here's another one that should be going to outback soon from the bay (i don't have a problem, I can stop anytime i want..I SWEAR!)

Any info would be appreciated. The original listing says that it was part of a meticulously well kept collection from a man in Urbana, Ohio decades ago, recently purchased at an estate auction. Seller seemed to think it says "RAY" and thus attributing it to Richard Ash. The shape SEEMS to be mid-late 18th cent. and from what i can TELL it says "G. Gray" - but I can't find any record of a "G gray" anywhere...JOHN gray maybe...did john have a son named George?



Oh wait.. found it, pg 219 of Leaders:

Code:

[Gray] George, son of Thomas, Bramley, h.; to Lomax, William, c. ; 8, 1733, F. 1751.
   "     "     son of Joseph, c., dec. ; to Robert Jacob, c. ; 5-4, 1764.
   "     "     son of George or Edward, button mkr., dec.; to Tillotson Thos., c.; 7, 1774, F. 1799

BTW a few question for you historians here:

1. How much did these cost, on average, at the time?
- https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/mone...ion-calculator says £5 in 1780 is like £880 today, I heard someone say £2-£5 somewhere, that's INSANE.
- I've seen adverts from early 1900s that put razors at about $20-$30 back then, which is $2000+ now?

2. I've always imagined that only the barbers and high class ppl would own these, the rest would go to barbers? By 1780-1790 the social changes from the industrial revolution should have been well under way in places like UK, iirc, does that mean many of the blades presented here from England, Germany and France could well have been owned by the new "middle class"?

Originally Posted by Tjh

A post on B&B forum made me realize smthg, and I'm curious: a lot of the razors on here are much older than the ones i've posted so how many of you guys actually USE these? Or at least have them in a condition that can be reasonably used for shaving? Esp. the ones that are early 1700s and 1600s.

Also...here's another one that should be going to outback soon from the bay (i don't have a problem, I can stop anytime i want..I SWEAR!)

Any info would be appreciated. The original listing says that it was part of a meticulously well kept collection from a man in Urbana, Ohio decades ago, recently purchased at an estate auction. Seller seemed to think it says "RAY" and thus attributing it to Richard Ash. The shape SEEMS to be mid-late 18th cent. and from what i can TELL it says "G. Gray" - but I can't find any record of a "G gray" anywhere...JOHN gray maybe...did john have a son named George?

So, mr Zak was kind enough to take a look at these, and says that this may be a Fleur-de-lise and the letters RAY, which makes a lot of sense and thus should confirm what the seller thought (which makes sense, as the information the seller got was likely from the late collector who had this for a long time). So this may be a Richard Ash after all! late 1780s or so.

Originally Posted by Tjh

So, mr Zak was kind enough to take a look at these, and says that this may be a Fleur-de-lise and the letters RAY, which makes a lot of sense and thus should confirm what the seller thought (which makes sense, as the information the seller got was likely from the late collector who had this for a long time). So this may be a Richard Ash after all! late 1780s or so.

I happen to be in the know about this one - the seller got that info from Zak I don't think the owner of the estate did much serious research on these.

Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

I happen to be in the know about this one - the seller got that info from Zak I don't think the owner of the estate did much serious research on these.

Oh, he didn't mention that, that's hilarious! .

Sidenote: do people collect stuff without doing tonnes of research on things? not saying this guy did or didn't but just curious...i feel like 90% of "being a collector" is learning about the thing you're collecting.

Originally Posted by Tjh

Oh, he didn't mention that, that's hilarious! .

Sidenote: do people collect stuff without doing tonnes of research on things? not saying this guy did or didn't but just curious...i feel like 90% of "being a collector" is learning about the thing you're collecting.

Oh yes there are plenty of magpie collectors who just go after rare and fancy looking stuff and people who get a lot without truly digging deep (I'm looking at you, Lummus and Doyle, at least based off of the stuff that has been un- or misidentified). As well as everything in between.

Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

Oh yes there are plenty of magpie collectors who just go after rare and fancy looking stuff and people who get a lot without truly digging deep (I'm looking at you, Lummus and Doyle, at least based off of the stuff that has been un- or misidentified). As well as everything in between.

Interesting, at that point, isn't it more "hoarding" than "collecting"? I like that tho "magpie collectors". One of the main reasons collecting stuff never really took off for me (I;ve tried the usual suspects, stamps, coins) is because at the time I found learning about the thing to be BORING! (not so with straight razors, interestingly enough).

Sidenote: a bit offtopic but, if someone here has resources about history of metalsmithing, cutlering (is that a word?) and straight razors specifically I'd love that. Aside from a few sites and browsing this forum ofc.

Originally Posted by Tjh

Sidenote: a bit offtopic but, if someone here has resources about history of metalsmithing, cutlering (is that a word?) and straight razors specifically I'd love that. Aside from a few sites and browsing this forum ofc.

There's plenty of knowledge on that here but that's such a broad topic it's really hard to answer. I'd start with one of the Sheffield history books like Masters to Mesters to get an overview of how the industries worked.