Thread: London, 1830: cost of razors

The last page of a treatise on straight razors printed in London in 1830 reports an ad published by the author to sell his razors and related items. A good converter that can "translate" 1830 prices using an index of "average earnings" (for UK) suggests how "affordable" the item would be to the average person. What the monetary value in the past is "worth" today, in 2009?

Here what I found:

Item	Cost (£=GBP)
razor "in black handle" (horn)	£312
razor with ivory handle	£374
razor with tortoiseshell handle	£436
strop	from £104 to £1165
roll of strop paste	£62, £104
olive-soap for shaving in pots	£83, £166, £416

Some thoughts:
1. maybe at that time barbers were a way to "share" razor costs (one razor for many persons), instead of something for rich people;
2. maybe that's why we find razors with lots of hone wear and handles with 3-4 different signatures (in the same family for generations);
3. maybe that's why there are treatises and manuals describing for pages how to choose a good razor;
4. maybe that's why razor sets are quite rare and almost always with extra-refined details; and even in this case during 1830's the "standard" was 7 blades but only one handle;
5. razor costs are not so terribly different from today (compared to Thiers-Issard, mastro Livi, etc..); maybe at that time vintage blades, as today, were a good alternative to new razors, and this could also explain why we find vintage blades with wooden scales;

Also, I use those numbers to try to accept the reality: I don't own razors with tortoiseshell scales ..and, very important, considering modern prices I should buy even more soaps from 0livia or strops from TM

That's a really awesome piece of information that you found there. Thanks!

Thanks for the reality check!! Really good info.

Interesting info.

Really fascinating, thanks.

do you have the original info? a photo of the catalogue would be nice.
there are many ways to convert to modern currency, so it'll be nice to have a column in the table with the original price.

Originally Posted by gugi

do you have the original info? a photo of the catalogue would be nice.
there are many ways to convert to modern currency, so it'll be nice to have a column in the table with the original price.

gugi is dead right.

I hope clavichord won't mind me uploading it for him...

A member here uploaded the document somewhere onto the site... I think he photographed his own original version, which I believe he got on ebay, which I believe was posted in the auction talk section.

Going by those prices the Hart razor is a bargain.

Originally Posted by clavichord

[..] A good converter that can "translate" 1830 prices using an index of "average earnings" (for UK) suggests how "affordable" the item would be to the average person. [..]

Originally Posted by gugi

[..] there are many ways to convert to modern currency [..]

From the catalogue [that's not mine, and that's why I can't publish pics ]:
Razors, in Black Handles . . . . 7s. 6d. each
Ditto Ivory . . . . . . . . . . . . .9s. 0d. each
Ditto Tortoiseshell . . . . . . . 10s. 6d. each [etc..]

Example of conversion. In 2008 £0 7s 6d from 1830 was worth:

£28.48 using the retail price index
£34.74 using the GDP deflator
£312.02 using the average earnings
£434.83 using the per capita GDP
£1,120.01 using the share of GDP

Here some suggestions coming with the online converter:

A Commodity. If your are asking about the "present worth" of buying a loaf of bread or filling the gas tank 40 years ago, are you thinking in terms of the amount of money you are spending today on such things? If so, use the price index of the average household called the CPI (RPI for the UK.) On the other hand, if you are wondering how "affordable" this would be to the average person, use the GDP per capita, or a wage or average earnings index.

As stated in the first post, I want to know how "affordable" the item was to the average person in 1830. Today £312 (conversion of the cost of one razor) is more or less the average pay for 6 days of work (£15,000-25,000 per year are average values that I found online for London, today). This would mean that in 1830 one razor costed at least about 6 days of work.