Need help deciphering: what do the symbols on the razor mean?
Please tell me in what years the razor was made?
Many thanks.
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Need help deciphering: what do the symbols on the razor mean?
Please tell me in what years the razor was made?
Many thanks.
A Sheffield English razor made pre 1895 but post 1860. No idea on the symbols, Ive never seen those before
Attachment 277288Attachment 277287Thank you. Please tell me about another razor: in what years the razor was made?Quote:
Originally Posted by rodb
Looks like the former owner added those symbols .Does not look like the work of Joesph Rogers
The 2nd one says "England" on the blade so roughly post 1895
Thank you. It's interesting.Quote:
Originally Posted by M14Shooter
Thank you. Post 1895 and pre?Quote:
Originally Posted by rodb
They had to start putting country of origin on razors roughly 1895, so if it only says Sheffield it's roughly pre 1895. I might be off on the year +/- 2 yearsQuote:
Originally Posted by Sanichknife
The celluloid scales on the second razor are not original to the blade. They kind of look like they may have come off of a French blade.
Yes. I know. I will make another scales.Quote:
Originally Posted by BeJay
i reckon Neil Miller would have had an idea what you say
Asked wife what it looked like to her.
Wife: 743
Asked if it could be a bad attempt at writing Chinese/Japanese and she said it was possible.
Maybe we are overthinking it and the person who engraved it didn't have a lot of 'schooling'. :shrug:
It's almost certainly another one of the many Hallamshire attempts at Chinese. It doesn't mean anything except that it was sold during one of the Victorian era's infatuations with all things remotely Chinese.
Not to be confused with the similarly misappropriated languages of India.
Yeah, here is a razor I want just because I think it is so funny they put this on their blades. I wonder if the owners thought it was genuine Chinese calligraphy they were putting on their product.Quote:
Originally Posted by Voidmonster
Attachment 277453
Here's my educated guess about how stuff like that came to be:Quote:
Originally Posted by JP5
Manufacturer notices that 'Chinese' goods are popular again; sends out letters to their salesmen saying they're taking orders for 'Chinese razors now'.
When the orders come in, one of the Little Masters hands the work order off to his crew along with an engraving from a book that he was told is Chinese (and it may even have been!).
Since these are stamped, not engraved freehand, the job would've gone to someone cutting a die to hammer into the blades. That worker may or may not have been fully literate in English. He (or she! There were a lot of women employed in the ancillary parts of the trade, especially earlier) would've then, with absolutely no idea what the engraving was meant to represent, copied it into a steel die.
At a book signing once, for a collection of short stories which included one of mine, I signed copies with the Akkadian cuneiform for the demon goddess Lamashtu (it was a book of horror stories).
I am not remotely literate in Akkadian cuneiform, and I practiced it for about an hour before the event. I was copying it from a photograph of a damaged amulet from a museum and using internet translations to figure out which characters were the goddess' name.
The results I got were pretty similar.
Thankfully, the chances of literate readers of the language coming across my inscriptions is much, much lower.
