Thread: More mystery sheffields

Hey, so does anyone know these razors?
I wanna say the first is a W&B, the handle says celebrated razor and I think I've seen this before.
The second is I dunno. It has a Cross, GB, then an Anchor. Maybe a "butcher"?

With GB with cross all is clear, but an anchor. I can't find the company which marked razors GB and an anchor. And this is very interesting for me.

The brand on the real mystery is like this:
|........|
|_____|
| + |
|GB|
| + |
| V |
|.../
Sorry for the ASCII art. the top + is the cross, kind of like a german iron cross, and the bottom + and V represents the anchor.

So the American Razor is W&B?

For the GB, cross and anchor, take a look at this blade. Is that the same marking on the tang? http://straightrazorpalace.com/galle...falo-horn.html. I remember seeing another thread about blades with a similar marking recently; I'll see if I can find it.

For the American Razor, I am quite positive that is a W&B. I can read the writing on the tang in the picture. It says Wade & Butcher on the second line. I have seen other W&B's with similar scales, and I've seen other W&B American Razor's with the same etching (though I don't think I've seen any with that frosting).

That is it exactly!
What I was thinking, since there was R. Wade, was there maybe a G. Butcher? I know W&B had an anchor at some point, and the cross looks similar, so maybe the W&B trademark came from hybridizing the two men's former companies. But then again I think Joseph Rogers and Joseph Smith both also had similar crosses.

So the American Razor is W&B?

As I see, on the shank "Manufactured by Wade & Butcher, Sheffield".
There are some companies with marks GB with cross.
But where is an anchor?

It looks exactly like the GB + thing at the bottomish left, but with an anchor.

10/8 in Translucent Buffalo Horn

holli4pirating, I saw this razor many times. But who made this razor?
W & B has another anchor, and it has never marked GB.

Originally Posted by manah

holli4pirating, I saw this razor many times. But who made this razor?
W & B has another anchor, and it has never marked GB.

I have no idea who made that one, I was just pointing to another with the same marking. Maybe Philadelph (was that his?) found some info. Worth a PM at least.

I have also seen W&B's with anchors; I've had one, handled another, and one just went on ebay for $2XX (don't remember, I think it was $247), but I have never seen a W&B marked GB and, if I'm not mistaken, the W&B's that did have the anchor all said "W&B" on them. EDIT: I was looking at the wrong auction. Philadelph posted the correct one further down.

Off the top of my head, the only GB I can think of is George Butler, and I believe that he worked in the W&B factory at some point (I believe there was a document about W&B works that showed George Butler). But I'm pretty sure someone (Clavichord?) posted a timeline of the W&B symbols and the anchor was a pretty old one. If I'm not mistaken, George Butler was much more recent.

Edward Gem & Co. (end of XIX c.) also used the +GB trademark, as reported between A.Field's other trademarks. Both companies were active in Birmingham and Sheffield, so I wonder if at least in this case the anchor is used as traditional symbol of Birmingham. Just to complete the list of possible manufacturers of this blade.