1787 Gales & Martin

I showed this to Zak (Voidmonster) and he helped assure me that of course I needed to buy it. No regrets there. Just a few pics because the whole thing is digitized, but what we are looking at here is a (re-bound) first edition of the 1787 Gales & Martin Directory of Sheffield. I don't think there's a razor I own that I'm as excited about owning as this book. The paper has a very cool heft and feel to it. I would offer pictures of anything from the book, but everything is already on google books in good quality. For me, though, it's something else to have an original :)

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Also, related, I only just missed this one, but a first edition of Perret's 1769 book went through this site, link here: The invention of the safety razor and description of new fleams and lancets by Perret – 1769 | Fleaglass Antiques For Sale

And Zak just picked up a reprint of the G&M done in the late 1800s, hopefully he will post about that here.

Very cool pick up ScienceGuy! :tu

nice piece of history in your hand
love it

As requested, here's my copy of the later reprint.

This one's only a hundred years old! But, it's available in its entirety as a scanned Google Book.

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...55a2e37c50.jpg

It's a slim little book. A bit smaller than a trade paperback, a bit larger than a regular paperback book. It's posing with a John Shepherd and an Ann Rowland razor, both from about the time of the original publication.

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...593107311a.jpg

This copy of the book came from the Sheffield library's research wing (and some of the pages have a little embossed stamp marking it as such). It's seen better days, with many repairs in it, but it's plenty sturdy for browsing.

One thing I noticed though is that the original book ScienceGuy got is subtly different, especially the maker's stamps. It's not a simple 'copy'. Clearly, that's worth investigating further. Especially since the previous Gales & Martin, from 1776, has what I believe to be serious printing errors (specifically for Ann Rowland's mark).

Wow that is an awesome find

Outstanding find !

you guys cant post those razors with the books !! i didnt even notice the books with them in there !!!