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Fancy razor day #2, these are a cased pair of 11/16 Touron-Parisot near wedge in beautiful ‘ironing board’ tortoise scales with original ‘bullseye’ washers. There are several interesting things about these razors. They date from 1850-1860, so they’re about 165 years old. It’s often difficult to date razors this precisely, but before 1850 the company was just Parisot, and after 1860 they were out of business. The case has the address 24 Rue de la Pais stamped in gold on it, so you can actually see the shop on Google maps - I believe it is a chocolate store when I checked.
I bought them off eBay from a New England Antiques store, and the seller advertised them as faux tortoise, but I knew that they were genuine tortoise. eBay won’t let you sell genuine tortoise (or ivory), but plastic wasn’t invented until about this time or even a few years later, and didn’t become common in manufactured goods until several years or even decades later. At the time these razors were made, there was no faux tortoise. Did the seller know? I feel sure that they did.
I wonder how 165-year old cased French luxury razors came to be in the US. My guess is that they were bought by an American diplomat or business person who traveled to Paris. There’s a story there that I’d like to know but probably never will.
The cream was Dior Eau Sauvage lathered in an Aesop bowl with a Keyhole 4. A splash of Lucky Tiger finished up and a little Dior Eau Sauvage AS balm followed on drydown. I added a bit of the Eau Sauvage EdT and was enjoying a fine fragrant shave on a Sunday morning.
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