Thread: Hibbard Spencer Bartlett and Co

Could any of you fine folks help identify the year of production of this blade, I just picked it up at a flea market for $5 and feel kinda good about it.

As you will see in the picture it has The Improved Rattler on the blade and Hibbard, Spencer over Bartlett and Co on the tang, on the other side it is numbered 365.

Any input would be grand

Hibbard Spencer Bartlett and Co is True Value Hardware.

Yea I found that on this Straight Razor Manufacturers and Dates of Operation, but I wanna know possible exact year.

Originally Posted by Nomadlobes

Yea I found that on this Straight Razor Manufacturers and Dates of Operation, but I wanna know possible exact year.

Good luck!

This is old known company. The owners were William G. Hibbard, Franklin F. Spencer and A. C. Bartlett.
Impossible to say the exact year, the first part of the 20th century.

I have a strop, made by this company.

I don't think that Bartlett was added to the name until around 1882. I have a regular Rattler that only has Hibbard, Spencer, and Co on the tang.

Yes, A. C. Bartlett became a partner in 1882. But before he worked at this company for many years.

It is not easy to find, but just give me someone else's achievements. In 2008, my search.
http://www.britva.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3723#p3723

ТМ: OVB, Our Very Best, HibSpeBar, RevONoc.

Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co.
This leading hardware dealership was the descendant of a Chicago store called Tuttle, Hibbard & Co., which took that name in 1855 when William G. Hibbard became a partner. In 1865, Hibbard was joined by Franklin F. Spencer, and the enterprise was renamed Hibbard & Spencer. By 1867, the company's annual sales of hardware had reached $1 million. When longtime company employee A. C. Bartlett became a partner in 1882, the company's name became Hibbard, Spencer & Bartlett & Co. When Spencer died in 1890, the company was already among the leading wholesalers of hardware in the United States. In 1903, the year Hibbard died, the company opened a 10-story warehouse next to State Street Bridge in downtown Chicago. In 1932, the company introduced a new line of hand tools under the brand name “True Value.” By 1948, Hibbard's annual sales reached nearly $30 million. Business slowed and profits were shrunk, however, as new hardware cooperatives began to bypass traditional wholesalers. In 1962, the company's owners, who wanted to move into the real-estate business, sold the hardware operations and the “True Value” brand to John Cotter for $2.5 million.

Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co.
http://www.roseantiquetools.com/site...hsb111.216.pdf
http://www.thckk.org/history/hsb.pdf

Great search!!!

I just picked this Hibbard Spencer Bartlett "May Flower" razor at a local flea market. It has a great design along the spine and cool inlays on the scales as well. Anyone have any experience with May Flowers?