15 Attachment(s)
17th century straight razors - artistic depictions
I'd been wondering what the average razor from the 1600s looked like, and it turns out there are actually a lot of sources for images of them. Some are from manufacturers' trade cards (which can be a bit caricatured), some are from various engravings or other artworks, some are from high-realism paintings. I've assembled a few here going by date to give an idea of the appearance of these things. Some of the dates of the trade cards have been corroborated from "Antique Medical Instruments" by Elisabeth Bennion, University of California Press, 1979. If anyone has corrections to any of the information here or has more to add, please do so.
Caveats to these images:
1. They are artists' impressions, so features can be distorted or exaggerated.
2. They are from different geographical regions, so strong differences in style could be present. The trade cards are mostly from cutlers based in London. The realistic paintings are generally Dutch, but that doesn't necessitate that the razors in those images are also Dutch.
The first is from John Woodall's "The Surgions Mate", from 1617. There are two images from this selection of the large panel of instruments - the top one, with number 3, is described as a razor, while the bottom, number 2, is described as a 'dismembering knife' to cut the fleshy bits prior to sawing bone in an amputation. There is also some text that goes along with the razor.
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The 2nd edition of the book was published in 1639 and offers the following engraving. Without a copy of that book to cross-reference the image though, I'm not sure if this is another example of a razor or some other kind of knife:
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This next one comes from 1668 by Cornelius Gijsbrechts of the Dutch school, from a highly realistic painting. The razor sits in its case, highlighting the way it was stored and the coloring of the inside of the case:
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Another painting by Isaak Koedijk (dating before his death in 1668) shows a similar case, with more spots for tools and implements, in a similar color scheme:
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Dating before 1670, a painting shows razors hanging in the workplace of a barber-surgeon:
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Also Dutch and dating before 1678 are two depictions by Samuel van Hoogestraten of tortoiseshell-scaled razors with silver endcaps:
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In the range of 1680-1710 are some trade cards that give impressions of razors of the time:
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In the same range (before 1704), works associated with Cornelius Dusart offer a few more depictions:
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