The Packwood mystery

Gentlemen,
I have been on a mission to find some historical background on the Packwood straight razor. This is a mysterious razor about which hardly anything is known. From what I understand, it is a superb shaver. Could the razor have been produced by George Packwood, who manufactured razor strops, among other things, in the 18th century? According to an old post from our esteemed historian Manah, from what I recall of it, Packwood did not produce any razors; rather, Packwood is just a brand name from the period. Perhaps the razor was produced for Packwood by another manufacturer. There is nothing unusual about that practice. It is done to this day — Dovo produces razors under a number of brands. This possibly sheds some light on the the mystery of Packwood razors, but also deepens it.
Can you shed light on the Packwood mystery, gentlemen? Thanks.

Why, it's a funny thing you happened to ask about this Obie cause maybe a year or so ago when all those Govt Men were around these parts I remember seeing this fella with an English accent looking at DE razors in the drug store and I asked him about these very razors and he told me it was some big secret. Apparently this hush, hush Govt facility in England developed the razor to be used by their field operatives. it was made to be outfitted with all manner of contraptions but something terrible happened there and the few razors that got out were quickly grabbed by those who got them and over the years their fame spread far and wide.

So he told me that...oh,..... wait a minute that was Torchwood.

Well maybe their related eh?

Obie - it is not a mystery! The gentleman in question is indeed George Packwood, and he was acknowledged as a razor strop (or 'strap') maker, and maker of the conditioning paste that was sold along with the razor strop. Advertising for the strops and paste began to hit their height in the mid 1790s, before spreading overseas to another individual of Packwood's own cut - the self-styled Barber Emperor Mr John Richard Desborus Huggins. Both were given over to what was then called 'puffing' - an overblown, semi-romantic, semi-serious advertising of their own products. It might be thought to the modern mind that these were attempts to mislead the public, but in reality it was to entertain, educate, mystify and delight them - as well as making a lot of money for Mr Packwood and Mr Huggins!

Huggins - who also rather elegantly called himself The First Knight of the Comb, was situated at 92 Broadway, New York. He heavily eulogized Mr Packwood's products, puffing them for all he was worth. Back in London - from No 16 Gracechurch Street to be exact (a warehouse cum manufactory cum shop cum house) Packwood did the same. He even retained a pet poet to put his thoughts - and advertisements - down in rhyme. For instance, the paste - a fine abrasive - that Packwood sold was formed into small pellets ('eggs') and sold in small circular tins ('nests'). From this he wrote 'Packwood's Whim. the Goldfinch's Nest; Or, the Way to Get Money and Be Happy. Giving a General Account of His Diverting Advertisements'. The goldfinches nest was, of course, the small tin of sharpening paste that gained him money, success and repute, to which he added by writing about it. The first edition was in 1796, the second in 1807. A search through land registry records shows George Packwood continuously at 16 Gracechurch Street up and until the year 1810, when presumably he died.

Packwoods Whim was sold by the author in Gracechurch Street, by Mr Raeburn at North Bridge Edinburgh, by Mr Simmons in Capel Street Dublin. Other bookstalls and traders carried it. It must have made quite a mark.

Sometimes he did stoop to leading people on - he told a credulous public that some copies of his books containd 'An Half Crown' in the centre (a not inconsiderable amount of money then) - and indeed, some of them did. The Half Crown in question though was a small anecdote titled The Half Crown, not a sum of money.

Packwood stocked razors as well as razor strops at his 'manufactory' in Gracechurch Street. Indeed, he was invited to bring along a selection of razors and strops to a prestigious gathering in London, but on being informed by an underling that his character was supposed 'not to be of the best' he turned round and went home again, then sued. His razors seem to have been made by several leading Sheffield makers, stamped-up for him as was the custom, and not made by himself. Some are marked 'silver steel' and if they really were, they must have come along in the decade after his demise (Faraday/Stodart research dates to 1818/19 and makers were not sought until after that date), so one presumes the firm was still in operation.

That Packwood is the subject of several books and his works are still on sale and in other collections proves him to be a rare man of high business acumen - a genius in the art of advertising.

Regards,
Neil

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Originally Posted by Neil Miller

he told a credulous public that some copies of his books containd 'An Half Crown' in the centre (a not inconsiderable amount of money then) - and indeed, some of them did. The Half Crown in question though was a small anecdote titled The Half Crown, not a sum of money.

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........... :rofl2: ...... love it !!!

i dont know but if i didnt just buy a coticule i would of kept bidding on the one that sold on the bay today ...lol

...And yes Virginia, there is a Packwood!
(:-).

Neil, my friend, thank you for the detailed information on Mr. George Packwood. You're pro, as always, and a learned historian. You have clarified quite a bit about Mr. George Packwood's life and the Packwood razor.
Stay well.

His company was definitely active into at least the early 1830's, as this razor attests:

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...2/IMG_8058.jpg

I'd really like to get my hands on copies of both Packwood's and Huggins' books. At this point, I've done enough reading from the era to find them both very funny.

And here's an American ad for Packwood razors dating to 1836:

http://theshiveringbeggar.com/wp-con...01-05-1836.gif

And finally, one of Huggins' ads:

Attachment 124770

He regularly told short, linked stories in installments across the weeks.

I dont know where it got to, but there is a very long thread on here someplace with much Paky info I think these threads should be tied together if there is a way to do that.
Sharptonn and Martin are all over this stuff!

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Originally Posted by Magpie

I dont know where it got to, but there is a very long thread on here someplace with much Paky info I think these threads should be tied together if there is a way to do that.
Sharptonn and Martin are all over this stuff!

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Yes i remember that thread: http://straightrazorpalace.com/show-...wood-stub.html
Attachment 124781

And thank you, Voidmonster, for the information. Every bit helps. Yes, one can see the humor from Huggins and Packwood. Interesting stuff, all this.

A bit more info re: George Packwood.

It appears that he first entered business as a perfumer and hairdresser. He was called as a character witness at the Old Bailey in 1786 and after being sworn he attests "...I am George Packwood. I live in Gracechurch Street. I am a hair-dresser and a perfumer..." Wakefield's General Directory of London, 1790, gives his trade as perfume and perfumer, Holden's London Directory of the same date records him simply as a perfumer.

Attachment 124794

He had an uncle named John Packwood who is deceased by the time George Packwood wrote his will, and a brother called Thomas Packwood of Defford in Worcestershire. Thomas, his wife Anna and their two sons John and Jacob are all handsomely taken care of in George's will.

He had a daughter - Peninnah - with his wife Sally. Sally outlived him but it seems that the daughter, born in 1787, did not.

Sally Packwood is left a lot in the will including the shopwoman and her daughter employed by George, their wages to be taken care of by the profits of his trade. He leaves the running of the Razor Strap and Paste business to Sally and another George - George Wingrove, including the sales of cutlery and perfumes, etc. He insists that the straps must always be of the finest quality as has been accustomed to and no inferior products are to be supplied. He leaves his 'Trade Marks' and the profits they accrue to the business, and makes a gift to several strop-makers, so it appears that he did not even make the strops he sold himself.

Attachment 124793

It appears that George Wingrove was in partnership Messrs James Waugh (the Elder and the Younger), as the partnership was dissolved soon after George Packwood's death:

Attachment 124795

NB James Waugh the Younger was still in business though - he is shown as insured by Sun in 1815 at a new address - Bride Lane, Fleet Street.

George Packwood's will was drafted in 1807, but he continued amending and adding to it up till early December 1810, when he died (Sally is recorded as a widow on the 18th of December 1810). On the very last page is another addition made by the executors of the will and dated 1835. It seems to draw a line under everything, so I suppose that it involved the death of his wife and the end of the business.

Regards,
Neil

Amazing mind old Packwood had! Sort of the P.T. Barnum of razors and strops!
(possibly related to Neil Miller?) :rofl2:

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Originally Posted by sharptonn

Amazing mind old Packwood had! Sort of the P.T. Barnum of razors and strops!
(possibly related to Neil Miller?) :rofl2:

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Ha ha! If there are ever the initials 'P. T.' associated with my name, it will be as in Post Traumatic - like when that still blew-up. But I digress...

I can see an advantage for you to read up and memorize some Packwood ramblings, Neil!
You could alternate with the "King George" ramble! Ahhh, the crowds will gather 'round!

Neil,
And more delicious information about Mr. George Packwood and company. You deserve a big star in my book. Your great mind and hunger for research amazes me. Then there are the fabulous Neil Miller strops. Thanks for all that.
Stay well, my friend.

I must confess, Tom, that a similar episode took place not four full days since, at my local refreshment parlour in Upper Brynamman, Wales. The thing that provoked it was the Inglorious 30-3 drubbing of the England side against Wales in the Six Nations Rugby. As chance would have it I was wearing a red AND white shirt, so avoided serious injury. The rest of the day and the following sunday seem to have passed away in a curious kind of dream that I now have no recollections of, much like waking from a normal dream. Of course, the cold valley air had a deleterious effect on yrs truly, so I must have been sickening for something...

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Originally Posted by Obie

Neil,
And more delicious information about Mr. George Packwood and company. You deserve a big star in my book. Your great mind and hunger for research amazes me. Then there are the fabulous Neil Miller strops. Thanks for all that.
Stay well, my friend.

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Thank you, Obie!

One last snippet: George Wingrove, Strop Maker of Islington, Middlesex, passed away in September 1822. That gives us a good date for Packwood Strops, Pastes and Razors to have been sold up to. The last link would be finding what happened to Sally Packwood.

Regards,
Neil

You are very welcome, Neil, and thank you again.
Yes, this information has teased my appetite more for the Packwood straight razor. I have one on the way, a 6/8 wedge in Spanish point and horn scales, and I have been licking my chops for the past few days. The Packwood razor had intrigued me for quite some time and I had continued to look for one. By Jove, I finally found it. When it arrives, I'll publish a photo in this thread.
This is exciting stuff, my friend.
Stay well,
Obie

Agreed, Obie! It is truly rewarding to find history on these items. It makes owning and using them most pleasant.
We are truly fortunate to have some fine historians in our midst!
Tom

Tom,
Indeed, it is a pleasure to read posts by these historical minds, who can also write, for they are gold mines for this worthy forum. As a humble student of history, I am grateful to all of them. Imagine the additional pleasure to shave with my Packwood now that I know something about its history. Of course, I feel the same about my Frederick Reynolds, Wade & Butchers, George Wostenholms and others. In my world — our world — a shave is more than just removing beard. A straight razor shave with its colorful ritual adds another nugget to the richness of life. Throw in a straight razor with a rich history and watch the treasure explode.

Then, of course, there's Mechi coming along in the 1850's, with his strops and his patented PECULIAR STEEL.

I should probably ad, regarding all these razors made for strop men, that it's simply not possible to know 'who really made them'.

The way cutlery was produced in Sheffield, after 1814, anyone could strike a mark. All you really needed to be in business was a wad of cash, and some work space. Since the late 1700's the workspace was actually rented to the employees, as well as the cost of gas and heating. For a long time, Joseph Elliot worked out of the leftover space in several different buildings, growing on the cutlery trade like an epiphyte.

It cost money to work for a major cutlery firm if you were one of the sub-bosses, and it cost money whether or not there was any work to do. So, when times were lean (and by 1830 they were quite lean indeed), the teams would regularly take on work from outside clients. The firms that owned the work space weren't super happy about that, but it was very much in their best interests to just keep it zipped on the subject, so workers regularly produced goods in their shops for other people. Including, I'd guess, other local cutleries.

In fact, the situation was so bad that it became common practice to take on a new job in order to pay for the old one, so the foremen commonly worked for several different cutleries at the same time.

When it came time to make razors for outside clients, it would have been far easier to just make them in the style of the work they were already doing, since that's what everything was set up for. The steel may have come to them already partly shaped for the blades they needed to make, the jigs and the punches and the haftings and even the muscle memory of how far you move the steel before the hammer hits all contributed to the form of the final product.

As for the stamps, those were struck into the steel before the metal was heat treated, and as such before final polish. Once you get to the point where the branding on the blade was chemically or electrically etched on, then you're really talking about blades of uncertain provenance.

So the answer to 'who really made' -- well, any old Sheffield razors, really -- is one that's basically impossible to answer without work orders and invoices.

Voidmonster,
Fascinating bit of historical information, my friend. Thank you. I would assume, then, the Packwood razor would fall in the category you describe. Who exactly made it, what hands, we shall never know. The same would be true, of course, of some of the other Sheffields floating around the straight razor world. All good stuff to ponder.
Stay well,
Obie

This newspaper bulletin from the Courrier 1817, claims a certain W. Addis succesor to George Packwood.
Attachment 124848

I see a lot of old strops around. I wonder if a Packwood strop exists anymore?

Martin,
Thank you for that interesting information on Packwood. All good stuff.
At this rate, I may have to base my next novel on the life of Mr. George Packwood.

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Originally Posted by Obie

Martin,
Thank you for that interesting information on Packwood. All good stuff.
At this rate, I may have to base my next novel on the life of Mr. George Packwood.

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From what i came across from Mr Packwood that would be quite the eccentric novel.

It would, Martin. What a delicious project. I'll have to think about it.
Stay well.

I think it's been posted before, but adding these pictures to the discussion. Interesting for the inscriptions on the case.

http://razoremporium.com/store/produ...9/IMG_4378.jpg
http://razoremporium.com/store/produ...9/IMG_4389.jpg

"Packwood, Cutler to the King of England, All the Potentates of the World, And by Special appointment to the People in whom center all power"

"Reader let Packwood but begin, To operate upon thy chin; His royal Razors shave so sweetly, Thyself will […] completely."

Attachment 248106

here an other one