The Rarest Rooney of Them All

I've seen and owned some amazing brushes over the years. I'll admit, this year has been rather epic, to me anyways.

I'm going to pull a @Darkbulb and make a discussion thread about this unusual Rooney brush.

This particular brush has the distinction of being rather rare. This is the only known one in existence as best I can tell. I find that rather distressing, as I would love to own more than one of this lovely brush.

Before I go any further, here are the photographs from the seller:




I like to know the provenance of some of the more unusual items I purchase on eBay, so I contacted the seller, and she replied with "my partner brought it from a gentleman who was 90 years old who was moving into a smaller property. He had a large collection of grooming articles." She later went on to say that there were other Rooney brushes in this style if I'd do an internet search.

As it happens, I have done extensive searching for other brushes in this style. Mostly to try and find out if anyone has ever pinned down a date for this brush. I found one other, owned by @thevez2 in butterscotch. Pictured here with a very nice old style Simpson Case brush.

Fishing lure brushes are fairly uncommon. Rubberset is the only manufacturer known (until now) to produce a brush with a fishing fly embedded in it. If I remember correctly, models 10c and 15c. People have also mentioned custom brushes as well, though I have yet to see any examples of these custom fishing fly brushes.

A member over at B&B speculated that it may have been made in the 60's through 80's, as that was when Rooney was making some of their more unusual brushes like the blue handled brushes and the ceramic fox hunting sets.

I believe that is possible, but I think this brush may have been made in the 50's, possibly as early as the 40's. From a post by mblakele:
"...Rooney did a little advertising in 1949:Chemist and Druggist Yearbook, Volume 81, p562. This mentioned shaving brushes in "pure Bristle or Badger" and also "Rooney's ladies' hairbrushes in pure Bristle or Nylon, in beautifully finished hardwoods or in laminated plastic, transparent or in a variety of lovely pastel shades." Once you start making transparent or pastel handles for hairbrushes, it is but a small step to fishing-lure handles for shave brushes."

The box is a design not seen before, and the label is marked "pure badger," also unusual. Rooney, like Kent, never bought into the hair grading system. They used the best they could get their hands on and called it badger. Or in Rooney's case, "best badger." They did mark boar bristle brushes "pure bristle."

This brush is being shipped out on Monday, so hopefully I'll have more pictures for this thread soon. I'm still flabbergasted that I was the only bidder on this brush. The initial bid was set very reasonably at £49.99. Modern Rooney's typically sell in excess of £100 and I expected this one to sell for close to £200 at least, being both rare and from all appearances, NOS as well.

 

You're right. I should have noticed that the bevel at the top is much longer on mine, also it lacks the lip at the very top of the brush. Good catch.

I'm starting to think that an employee at Rooney either made this brush for his/her own amusement, perhaps to show off their fly tying skills, or it was a custom order, though I've never heard of any custom Rooney's.

It's closer to this Rooney design, though again, not exactly.

 

Well I put an absurdly high snipe on it, so when I woke up in the morning and saw the notification that I'd won, I dreaded seeing what I would have to pay. When I found out I was the only bidder, I almost spiked my phone for joy. I can honestly say that the only brush that I will ever own that will top this one will be a brush I've made with my own two hands. That will be a few years down the road, I think. I'll enjoy this one in the meantime.

 

I think I've figured out what the fly is at least. I believe it is a Scottish style Mallard and Claret trout fly, one of the finest examples I've seen.

Here's the best one I've seen in a Google image search.

Here's another.

 

I've only given up one item that was too rare to be used, Gary, and that was that NOS Gillette Milord Christmas set. To you, if I remember rightly.

I'm going to pretend this is as common as pennies and use it often.

 

I didn't ask. I did think about it though.