Thread: the who's mark is it game

There are a large number of manufacturers who used anchors in marks. It is obviously not going to be a modern company like Wester bros or one of the other German producers given the ages/styles of razors showcased.

To complicate matters, two different examples of this recently went through ebay (note the anchor here is fouled), marked with I. Barber.

Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

There are a large number of manufacturers who used anchors in marks. It is obviously not going to be a modern company like Wester bros or one of the other German producers given the ages/styles of razors showcased.

To complicate matters, two different examples of this recently went through ebay (note the anchor here is fouled), marked with I. Barber.

I ran into that razor as well, first impression of it that it was some kind of fake or somebody wanted it to be more valuable, the I Barber stamp is on the other side, and all the one ive seen were not, and its upside down?
And the Wade & Butcher look alike anchor.......

I have been looking at the anchors in threads and on google images and not many are very close. The fouled anchor or anchor with another character like flags or swords. There are some different shaped anchors too, like the length of the crossbar and the size of the arc on the bottom. The one gooser has seems to be the closest I have seen and the anchor on a Wade and Butcher that Martin103 had posted in another thread. It is pretty confusing.

Originally Posted by RezDog

I have been looking at the anchors in threads and on google images and not many are very close. The fouled anchor or anchor with another character like flags or swords. There are some different shaped anchors too, like the length of the crossbar and the size of the arc on the bottom. The one gooser has seems to be the closest I have seen and the anchor on a Wade and Butcher that Martin103 had posted in another thread. It is pretty confusing.

the one u have is the only other one i have saw that was similar to mine , you are probably going through all the old threads and searches i just went through about a year or 2 ago as well as about a week ago in search of the elusive razor mark ..lol.. it can be fun yet frustrating at the same time ... but also in some of the older post you see the updated info in the modern .. for example i saw apost where W&B was said to have never used the anchor , then in another post a year later yu see the same ppl talking about the W&B anchor stamp !! its great that no matter what you know it seems the learning process always continues and the history continues to spill out of the closet ...

The anchor on this GB is very close:

Vintage GB Anchor Straight Razor Sheffield | eBay

Originally Posted by Martin103

I ran into that razor as well, first impression of it that it was some kind of fake or somebody wanted it to be more valuable, the I Barber stamp is on the other side, and all the one ive seen were not, and its upside down?
And the Wade & Butcher look alike anchor.......

Was wondering about fake as well, but if someone went to all the trouble to counterfeit that, why not go all the way and counterfeit it as John Barber? If I recall J Barber made a point to claim other 'Barber' goods without his mark as inferior.

Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

Was wondering about fake as well, but if someone went to all the trouble to counterfeit that, why not go all the way and counterfeit it as John Barber? If I recall J Barber made a point to claim other 'Barber' goods without his mark as inferior.

Indeed he did, was advertise as such if i remember correctly.It really looks like a fake to me, even the anchor is stamped the wrong way?

Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

Was wondering about fake as well, but if someone went to all the trouble to counterfeit that, why not go all the way and counterfeit it as John Barber? If I recall J Barber made a point to claim other 'Barber' goods without his mark as inferior.

That is correct. I was just reading up on this the other day too in my Tweedale's Directory because I was looking at a J. Barber on the bay.

In 1825 an American visitor met Barber, whose wares were known worldwide & had become so celebrated as to induce others to counterfeit his stamp, & he informed that he spent an amount of money in advertisements to caution the public against these frauds, as the sale of goods under his name not only curtails his business but injures his reputation...........
His razors passed through his own hands before they received his mark.

I was also reading of another maker whose razors were being counterfeited, James Johnson but he has nothing to do with this. He didn't have an anchor marking.

Originally Posted by Martin103

Indeed he did, was advertise as such if i remember correctly.It really looks like a fake to me, even the anchor is stamped the wrong way?

Well, I. Barber razors themselves were fakes...

The fact that there's an I. Barber razor with the anchor got me looking around, and in fact various styles of anchor were used as masonic symbols, much like the square & compass that John Barber used.

(As an aside, by the 1820's the affect of using a capital letter I to represent a J had not completely died out, so the I. Barber stamp was several layers of misdirection).

All that said, I'm positive that the anchor marks were not marks that anyone owned.

here was the thread I saw the other day with a list of even more makers that use/used an anchor ..now to search them out to see there marks ..lol

http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...-hallmark.html