Thread: Huge Gervais

Just got a new member to the family and it's a big boy. Thanks Livio for the great deal,. It's a great shaver with just a few light strops.

Very nice!

That Blade has been around the Block many times.I really wanted it.Very nice razor,enjoy.

I had never heard of this brand before and I tried looking for information on it but, no luck. I know that it was sold on ebay before for a bargain price and then turned up here at SRP but didn't sell. Other than all this I would like a little more history on this huge razor. I have cleaned it up now and it is really nice and shiny. It has real good steel and very little spine wear, but if anyone out here can help with some history I would appreciate it very much.

Thanks everybody, i will continue my search for information on this razor and share any new information I may find.

Very nice acquisition, I did find a few interesting things about the Gervais razor. Firstly Anvers(Antwerpen) is a city in Belgium. N. Gervais is for Nicolas Gervais, he is listed in the diretory of Anvers in 1877-1878 as a gunsmith and cutler.
Jules Gervais was a gunsmith in Anvers as well, since the razor is marked "succ" for successeur or in english successor, im assuming that Nicolas
was a family member that was trained by Jules.
Jules gervais work as a gunsmith was truly breathtaking.

This is just what I needed. I am a bottom dweller in the field of straight razors now I see a beautiful photo of something I can afford even less (as if that is possible), an engraved double gun, which must be a sidelock, thanks for posting! Now I'll probably go creep around a double gun forum where oil barons show off their acquisitions.

Originally Posted by Martin103

Very nice acquisition, I did find a few interesting things about the Gervais razor. Firstly Anvers(Antwerpen) is a city in Belgium. N. Gervais is for Nicolas Gervais, he is listed in the diretory of Anvers in 1877-1878 as a gunsmith and cutler.
Jules Gervais was a gunsmith in Anvers as well, since the razor is marked "succ" for successeur or in english successor, im assuming that Nicolas
was a family member that was trained by Jules.
Jules gervais work as a gunsmith was truly breathtaking.

How strange! - as soon as I saw that tang stamp I thought of the razor here - both Tom and I had seen the same mark before.

Now it seems that it was made by one of the Gervais family. Emmanuel Gervais was in munitions:



The same webpage says that Jules Gervais was operating at the same time - 1910. That is just the date of the ad, though.



That he was active earlier is not in doubt:



The odd thing is that the razor in the post I have linked to is stamped 'Jourdain - importe d'Allemagne' which means it was imported from Germany and that Jourdain was not the maker. On the back it has the stamp (now) attributed to Gervais - the 'A' in which must stand for Anvers (Antwerp).

So - was the Jourdain originally Belgian made, sent to Germany, then imported by Jourdain into France. Very odd.

Regards,
Neil

Neil, good eye! i knew i saw that stamp before! Both blade looks very identical, more then likely from the same manufacturer. I'm thinking both razors were made in Germany for Jourdain and Gervais.

Wow awesome informational background history, thanks a million!