Thread: Elgin

Justin,

Nice looking razor! I'd say your Dad did OK!!

Good to see you back, been missing your posts!!

Howard

Originally Posted by SirStropalot

Justin,

Nice looking razor! I'd say your Dad did OK!!

Good to see you back, been missing your posts!!

Howard

+1 for that! Good to see you back! Your new razor is very cool, your Dad nailed it!

Thanks guys, I'm glad to be back. As or information on EAM, I'm having a good bit of trouble. There was a man by the name of Allen Gellman, who owned a costume jewelry business called Elgin American Manufacturing, which was primarily involved in making ladies compacts. Another company he was involved with made watch cases for Elgin National Watch Company watches. I've yet to find any mention of razors though. There were a lot of companies using the Elgin name in their company titles of course.

I did find an image of a gold plated cigarette case with the same design as these scales, and also made by a company using the Elgin American Manufacturing title. There were several lawsuits involving Elgin National Watch and other companies suspected of trying to capitalize on the watch companies reputation, by using similar abbreviations, and one advertisement from a smaller company went so far as to make a statement "Like a watch!" in their ad. So for now, what we have is not a whole lot to go on in the way of tying this razor to some history. Although I have enjoyed reading about Mr. Gellman. I've even gone so far as to contact Elgin Historical Society, but haven't heard anything from them. I'll keep the thread updated, and make a wiki entry for it, when or if, I've got something concrete.

I'm guessing that these may have been made, and then purchased for retail by a distributor who was selling other Elgin products. It seems likely that any store selling Elgin watches, might make a go of selling a razor to someone who came in for a watch. And having the Elgin American Manufacturing name on the box would sure help out. Something like S.R. Droescher selling razors right along with his stones. Although making good steel, and mining good rock have basically nothing in common, putting the same brand name on both products does make fans of the stone more apt to buy the razor, and vice versa I guess.

Finally, Happy New Year!

Originally Posted by regularjoe

Attachment 150557Attachment 150558Attachment 150559Attachment 150560 Thanks to my Father's keen eye, I am the new owner of this Elgin straight. We're fairly sure you're looking at gold plated scales here. I'll follow up later as I can scrounge some more information on the manufacturer. In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy the pics.

HA! I have one of those in fine shape! Never knew who made it. I think the scales are anodized. The pins are unique.

Here is mine! The pins are hollow. You can see right thru them! I think the scales are anodized aluminum. Cool Piece! Good to know something about it! Thanks, Joe!

Very nice Tom! Not much information from this company regarding razors but did find this one unusual travel razor. Also a package of DE blades.