Thread: Saw an advertisement from 1900 – looked around and found the matching razor

I just found this old advertisement of the Gebrüder Bell in Gräfrath – Solingen. The advertisement dates 1900.



In the text you can read:
„Completely free of charge and postage each of us can acquire goods ………“.
That reads in the first moment that you can get a razor for free but if you continue the sentence tot he end „…. for appropriate value“.

So even a hundred and twenty years ago, merchants knew how to capture customers with clever advertising
The offered razor no. 64 you could order for 2 german mark, you could test it for two weeks and got 5 years of warranty.
Also you could have your own name with golden letters on the razor for only 10 penny more.

Comparing the value of 1900 to todays situation, the razor would have cost around 16 USD.

The company Bell was founded in Gräfrath near Solingen (later in the 1900’s the town was incorporated in Solingen) in 1876 by three brothers Arthur, Ernst and Paul. They also made daggers and sold a lot of other things like clocks, pipes, jewelry and binoculars, and other stuff as you can read in the advertisement.

When I looked around on the net, I found exactly the razor shown in the advertisement and bought it from a german seller.
So here it is, unrestored so far. But doesn’t look too bad for his maybe 120 years.



It is ¼ hollow ground and was around 5/8 wide when sold. It has some hone wear, so was quite used.



No golden name on it though, the costumer saved the 10 penny to get his personal example.

Stay sharp!
Peter