Thread: The Celebrated?

Originally Posted by Scipio

Id bet money that Wade and Butcher came up with the 'Celebrated;' either that or back in the day in Sheffield 'Celebrated' was a commonly used term with a lost meaning in modern day every day life

Honestly, most of the ones I see are indeed Wade and Butchers. I've seen them in 7/8, 8/8, and 9/8. Maybe 6/8 too - not sure.

Originally Posted by Miner123

I was wondering the same thing. I have a razor marked Clinton Cutlery Sheffield with the "Celebrated" marking on the blade. It looked very similar to the W&B marking.

I've noticed that they also had a run of 'Fine India Steel' etchings from one manufacturer to another. W&B came out with an etching that said 'You Lather Well I'll Shave Well' and Wostenholm followed with a similar blade (size) etched 'You Lather Well I'll Shave Better'.

Wostenholm etched some of their blades IXL (I excel) and George Allen seeing the popularity of his competitor came out with 'Non XL' to pick up some of the market share. According to Robert Doyle in "Straight Razor Collecting" in the 1840s to 1850s Celebrated, Celebrated Rattler, Celebrated Old Army and Old English were common etchings of various manufacturers.

Some manufactures marked their blades with 'Solely made by', 'The Original', 'The Only True', and such as that. They were all trying to push their wares one against the other. Nothing new under the sun as Solomon said a couple of thousand years ago.

Originally Posted by tabre

Just out of curiosity, do you have a pic of it?

I might have a picture of it if not I'll try to get one up.

Not very good pictures but here it is:

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

According to Robert Doyle in "Straight Razor Collecting" in the 1840s to 1850s Celebrated, Celebrated Rattler, Celebrated Old Army and Old English were common etchings of various manufacturers.

Do you have any idea how old my W&B might be Jimmy?

Originally Posted by Miner123

Not very good pictures but here it is:

Thanks for the pics. So, we have yet another "The Celebrated" by a different manufacturer with very similar markings to the others we've seen. By the way, nice razor. I love the barber's notch.

Originally Posted by tat2Ralfy

Do you have any idea how old my W&B might be Jimmy?

No I'm afraid not. If it doesn't have 'England' in the tang stamp it would be pre-1881. IIRC that was the year a treaty required that the country of origin be marked on cutlery. To gauge the era a razor was made prior to that there are nuances of scales and blade that are helpful and shown in Doyle's book.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

No I'm afraid not. If it doesn't have 'England' in the tang stamp it would be pre-1881. IIRC that was the year a treaty required that the country of origin be marked on cutlery. To gauge the era a razor was made prior to that there are nuances of scales and blade that are helpful and shown in Doyle's book.

Hey man thank you for that info. Very interesting.