Thread: The worlds largest collection of T. Ascher!

I am now the proud owner of the most T. Ascher razors collected in one place.

My latest acquisition has doubled the size of my collection, which is now twice as big as any other collection I'm aware of (eat my dust, Lummus!)

The new guy is the one on top. It's gonna need some serious love to get usable, but it's pretty clean for all that.

In all seriousness, if anyone else has any of these razors, I want to see pictures! Of the three I've seen, no two are alike, and at least one of these two is a fantastic shaver. I have no real reason to think the new one won't be.

Since my last thread on T. Ascher, I spent a bunch of time bugging Neil Miller. I went barking up the totally wrong research tree while he narrowed it down to a luxury goods importer living in a tony London neighborhood, Theo Ascher -- a much more likely candidate than my Chicago haberdasher.

The only other T. Ascher I'm aware of was in Lummus' collection. It was a monstrous thing -- 13/8 -- with a Masonic etch. Lummus dated it as 1845, but if the luxury goods Ascher is indeed the man responsible for these blades, that date is almost certainly wrong. The Luxury Goods Theodore Ascher was born in 1842. I doubt even the most extreme prodigy would be producing blades for the Freemasons at the age of 3.

On the other hand, my latest acquisition really, truly looks 1850's to me.

In any event, here's what Neil manged to find:

THEODORE ASCHER Deceased.

Pursuant to the Act of Parliament 22nd and 23rd Victoria
chapter 35, entituled " An Act to further amend
the Law of Property and to relieve Trustees."
NOTICE is hereby given that all creditors and other
persons having any claims or demands against the
estate of Theodore Ascher late of No. 18 Park-road
Regent's Park in the county of London and of No. 19
Jewin-street in the city .of London Manufacturers'
Agent' deceased (who died on the 5th day of July 1895
and whose will was proved in the Principal Registry of
the Probate Division of Her Majesty's High Court of
Justice on the 9th day of August 1895 by Maurice Frischer
of No. 19 Jewin-street aforesaid Foreign Agent and Importer
and Sidney Rosenfeld of No. 118-Highbury New
Park in the county of London Merchant the executors -
therein named) are hereby required to send the particulars
in writing of their claims or demands to us the
undersigned, the Solicitors for the said executors, on or
before the 1st day of October 1895, after which date the
said executors will proceed to distribute the assets of
the said deceased amongst the persons entitled thereto
having regard only to the claims and demands of which,
they shall then have had notice; and they will not be
liable for the assets of the said deceased or any part
thereof so distributed to any person or persons of whose
claims or demands they shall not then have had notice.

—Dated this 14th day of August 1895.

JOSEPH and HYAM, 17 Finsbury-pavement,
London, E.C. Solicitors for the said Executors.

Congrats on having the worlds largest collection. I look forward to at least tying your title...LOL Thanks for the research info. They look cool

Yea, those are sweet. I really like how the spine comes to a point and then flairs out on the larger of the two razors. Kind of like what one finds on some Torreys.

Just an added data-point on T. Ascher.

5144 And Theodore Ascher, of Jewin Street in the city of London, has given the like notice in respect of the invention of "Improvements in the manufacture of tobacco pipes and other similar articles." A communication to him from abroad by Moriz Frischer, of Vienna, in the empire of Austria.

Damn, those are cool.

Hah! Then I am at least tied for second and will soon be crowned the T. Ascher king. Just wait, you'll see.

That bottom razor is truly a beautiful thing....that is steel that looks like steel. How many of those great finishes, that only time and care can impart, are lost to the buffer kings.

I guess I should've probably updated this thread...



I got a third Ascher razor.

Trilaterial1, where did you get yours?

I've been pretty obsessively chasing down the history of these -- for no other reason than it's hard to do, and tracing where they came from really helps.

That said, I've got a much better idea who T. Ascher was since I made this thread. I'll try and update it later today with more information, but I'm eyeball deep in research on something else at the moment.

Your latest acquisition looks like a monster!! beautiful etching too.

Very nice collection Zak, 3 razors from the same maker yet totally different blades, would be interesting to update your new finding on Mr Ascher!