I picked up a gold plated Gem Junior this weekend at a flea market for a mere $5 and even though I've spent some time looking at sites where you can judge the approximate age of Gem razors, I haven't been able to find mine detailed anywhere. It's closed combed, the screw-off handle isn't black, it's brass. It does have the patent 1912 by the threads on the head. Here are a few photos. Does anyone know what range of years this might have been manufactured? Mechanically it is sound. I may try it out after cleaning it up. Let me know if you'd have it replated if it were you also.
It was made later than 1912. Use google books, search GEM junior razor and you can find vintage ads with specific dates. All I can say is that razor you have there in unplated brass not gold. Though it used to be gold. There are some real gold plated ones but those are the later models that had extra treatment to make the gold plating last. The good thing about plain brass is that it can be polished to become good as new
Thanks for the info! OK, now I'm stuck going down a rabbit hole by scrolling through all the fascinating magazine ads from the last 100 years using Google Books... Wow... what a time killer!
Sometime after 1920 or so is about the best guess, the ones made prior to the 1919 ASR merger have the Damaskeene blade advertisement stamped inside the frame.
After cleaning and seeing how it performs, personally I would replate it unless my objective was to resell it. The way I look at it is that it didn't look like that when the original owner purchased it. Nickel or gold to me would be fine.
