Thread: Flea Market Haul

Lovely haul. I have a nice lather well but I've never had one of those with the anchor mark on the tang. I vaguely remember reading something about the meaning of that but can't recall. Great stuff though, happy for you.

Congrats Undream, those are some cool ones you got there.

You are a spatula magnet! I'm going to let you choose between that GB and the Stenton. If you don't send one to me, all that weight is going to open up a sinkhole under your house... or create a singularity or something.


Great finds, Brad!

Me and hogaloo spent a day of goofing off today, trying to find out something about this "Cross" "GB" "Anchor" razor...


Here is a compilation of what we have found, thus far.








After all this...the Anchor is still extremely puzzling. Why an anchor, and why was it adopted by Wade & Butcher so soon after? The razor does not look earlier than 1825... and that is stretching it, it looks more like 1830s-1850s.

Could the anchor just be a city hallmark? Birmingham's hallmark is an identicle anchor:



Did someone continue using the GB logo? George Brittain seemed to open several firms. He was so successful, he had people who owed him money pay his brother.

The world may never know...

I have requested full copies of the Lumnus articles of old sheffield razors from the 1922 and 1927 journals "Antiques". I am hoping to learn more about early sheffield stamping.

Originally Posted by Undream

Did someone continue using the GB logo?

I think so. Decades later, Edward Gem and Alfred Field & Co. are shown as using the same GB and cross trademark. And before B, W, and B was Broomhead, Wilkinson, and Brittain, table-knife makers. I wonder when they started making razors?

Thanks for posting what you found, that was interesting to read. How badly would you like to go back in time and visit that shop on Carver Street in Sheffield? Some very cool things to see then I'd imagine.

To complicate matters further, there are at LEAST two other manufacturers who used the same GB and cross mark...

http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...heffields.html

That was a good conversation about it.

EDIT: sorry, I didn't see that Lee already posted something along those lines. Still, this link is helpful.

I haven't yet seen the GB with cross being used by anyone earlier than the dates Brittain used them, so GB strikes me as possibly being the initials of George Brittain

In the guide to razors book, the same big wedge razor with GB and anchor is listed as an example of a particular early date range, but I forget exactly which it was. I believe it was either 1820s or 1830s

It really seems odd... you have George Brittain which supposedly liquidated his initial partnership in 1798 on one hand, and then Alfred Field & co starting in 1892 on the other... and neither of them falls under the dates that match the razor..

I am with Lee on this one though, my guess is George Brittain came up with his own logo after his first business venture liquidated... and either began another firm or personally was making them on the side... and I certainly hope he was still doing it into the 1820s.... heh