My Sweeniest razor yet!

I won this on eBay for almost nothing, which surprised me since it's obviously an early 1800's razor. But it was sold as 'Tzell & Son, Ouverie St'.

Which, admittedly, is exactly what the stamp appears to say.

Attachment 75662
Attachment 75663


The razor is in pretty bad shape. The active rust is surprisingly minimal, but the edge looks like it was used to saw boat anchors. I'm guessing it was made sometime between 1810-1820. Possibly 1800-1810, but the shape makes the later range seem more plausible.

And the scales... Oh. Ouch. Completely chewed and rotted through on one side. They're tortoise shell, with a silver inlay.

But man did I want to know who made this. I couldn't turn up anything on a 'Tzell & Son', or even an 'Ouverie St.'

But then something clicked in my head and I remembered another street name like that. BOUVERIE street. In just a moment I'd found it. A London street.

So I scrutinized and scrutinized and thought, maybe it was two initials and Zell & Son. So I started searching on Zell & Son, Bouverie St. London.

I turned up a Livery and sewing gear maker on Bouverie Street named Nortzell & Son. They made neat little stamped livery buttons for servants, and I was even able to turn up a couple of pictures of their maker's stamp on the back. Pretty clearly the right maker.

I cannot find any reference to them making straight razors, but they started making buttons and sewing stuff around 1825, so my guess here -- and it's only a guess -- is that the Sheffield makers had taken enough of the razor market that the London smiths weren't doing so well with razors, so Nortzell & Son switched over to something else.

Where this story gets interesting is the location. Bouverie street is a short little street, about two blocks long, off of Fleet Street. It's the road where Whitefriars Priory was.

If Sweeny Todd had been a real person, it's the road under which he was hiding his victims, because his shop faced it on Fleet Street.

These days you can still see the crypts of Whitefriars, but you've got to go to the back of a law firm and go into their basement. There's a sign for it though, if you're interested.

Also of note, Bouverie street held the offices of News of the World up until very recently.

That is the story of how I got the closest thing I could to Sweeny Todd's razor.

(If I've got any of my facts wrong, I really, really want to know!)

I believe that it wasn't uncommon, though it was frowned upon, for razor makers to produce work stamped with the name of the retailer rather than their own around that period. I suspect, but can't prove, that's what happened with Packwood razors and there's a chance it applies here as well though with a name as unique as that the place you found is likely mixed up in this.

Hahaha, you out bid me on that razor! I thought that ouvrie street was probably bouvrie street, but I didn't turn up the livery maker. I noticed in google maps that it was off of fleet street, and I too thought of sweeny todd. Haha. Very nice sir. Very nice.

What a cool razor, and an even cooler story! Great detective work there, good job
:tu

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Originally Posted by MickRussell

I believe that it wasn't uncommon, though it was frowned upon, for razor makers to produce work stamped with the name of the retailer rather than their own around that period. I suspect, but can't prove, that's what happened with Packwood razors and there's a chance it applies here as well though with a name as unique as that the place you found is likely mixed up in this.

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As near as I can tell, the only thing Nortzell & Son did (other than this ONE SINGLE RAZOR :) is metalwork, so I'm guessing they forged the blade. But at this remove of history, who knows?

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Originally Posted by medicevans

Hahaha, you out bid me on that razor! I thought that ouvrie street was probably bouvrie street, but I didn't turn up the livery maker. I noticed in google maps that it was off of fleet street, and I too thought of sweeny todd. Haha. Very nice sir. Very nice.

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So YOU'RE the reason I paid the princely sum of $15! You blackguard! :cool:

I didn't even consider the Bouverie street connection until I had it in hand, I just thought I was getting one more early razor!

So.. Voidmonster... when are you gonna start killin' people?

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Originally Posted by AxelH

So.. Voidmonster... when are you gonna start killin' people?

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Just as soon as my zoning permit comes in.

But I tell ya, the bureaucracy on setting up my Man-Cattle Murder-o-Rama has made me wonder if it'll be worth all the effort.

I would love to see that guy rebuilt. What are your plans?

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Originally Posted by sidmind

I would love to see that guy rebuilt. What are your plans?

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Currently very tentative. It's going to be a while before I've got the time to dedicate to this one. What I would like to do is clean up and straighten out what remains of the scales then fill in all the holes with epoxy. I'm thinking something that will be really obvious, rather than trying to blend. I want to highlight all the missing parts. Then I'll probably just get the active rust off the blade, leave the tarnish and try to get an edge on it. The idea being to really show the wear and damage it's sustained while making it as structurally sound as possible.

Stop the press! I just dug up more information on Nortzell & Son (instead of sleeping, sometimes I research razors, it's how I keep my youthful appearance).

I dug up a registry of military button makers and found that Nortzell & Son was Nortzell & Broughton until 1832, so this razor is from 1832 at the earliest. There is a large and mysterious gap between 1838 and 1863, but by 1864 the happy Nortzell lot had moved to a different address.

Thomas Nortzell began making buttons in 1809, started making army & navy buttons with the Henry Broughton in 1814 and became a general purpose hardwareman (as well as button-maker) in 1822. It was in 1832 that he kicked Broughton to the curb in preference for his (in this listing) woefully unnamed son.

(and I still haven't done anything to fix it up because I am eyeball deep in deadline for work)

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Originally Posted by Voidmonster

Stop the press! I just dug up more information on Nortzell & Son (instead of sleeping, sometimes I research razors, it's how I keep my youthful appearance).
I dug up a registry of military button makers and found that Nortzell & Son was Nortzell & Broughton until 1832, so this razor is from 1832 at the earliest.

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Great job. I didn't think it fit the earlier time frame. At first glance, I thought it was more 1840 ish :D

Thanks for the history lesson. Hope you enjoy that good looking cutthroat razor.

I've been slowly building up my restoration skills and I've started poking at this razor again.

It's had a real... Interesting repair. One half of the scales are tortoise shell, the other is dyed horn. THAT's why these scales confused me before. They're BOTH. But wow is the tortoise in bad shape. It's the side that's split and warped.

Awesome history to this ... thanks for the knowledge!

Now that the name Broughton has come up, I have a razor stamped Broughton 135 Fenchurch St. Only one I’ve ever seen. Came as a loose blade in a bulk lot.