Just look at it.... It is a top tier soap. No need to fanny around with it. Just get to the brush and go. Great stuff. Legendary even...
I’ve got both vintage OS and vintage Williams. I’ve also got pretty hard water. I can lather both but the Williams takes a little work. The OS makes a nice smooth yogurty custard with ease.
I started with Williams Soap back in the early 60's, great soap, burt it wasn't vintage back then, Switched over to Old Spice and liked it better, mostly because it had a great scent, both had about the same great lather. I recently acquired a stick of Williams an puck of OS and eventually tried both. They both had the same great lather but the scents were deminished.
I haven't yet purchased the mug/soap. The soap looks like it was never used, but it has some oxidation (I think) on the surface. It also isn't wrapped in plastic. (I don't know if they came that way or not.)
Since others have mentioned Williams in line with talkinabout Old Spice-I have the Burma Shave soap/cake, and find it to be quite good-lathers with ease. . I'm sure OS is the same way(except for the OS scent, of course).
Unless it has a tree growing out of it, it will be fine. Just rinse of the dust and lather it a few times and you will be good to go.
My age-old pucks of Williams have some oxidation. Nothing to worry about, although I do use this @GDCarrington method. (miss that guy around here) https://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/the-vintage-williams-project.45842/
This is correct (was for my soap/mug combo). Shulton used little tabs of red tape to hold the lids down as well.
Me, i would just do a test lather or two. No blooming. Good to go! It's old soap so will take a few uses for the scent to properly appear. (Assuming it still has some). Just use it as any other tbh. Just tell us how you get on! Edit: Looks like that soap may have been used. I would take it out of the mug and rinse it like you would bar soap a couple of times. Congrats, its a great soap and a cool mug
Nice find. It's a fantastic soap. I have an old puck of OS that was near powdery to the touch, very dried out and cracked, This morning I put it into a shave bowl and added about a 1/4 cup of water and this evening I checked it, It had drawn in all the water, not all slimy but now looks like a new normal used soap, will try it in the morning. I had a stick of Williams that turned to powder That I could turn to powder between my fingers. I grated it into a bowl, added water to re-hydrate, let stand a few days to harden and was able to use like a normal shave soap. Old vintage tallow soaps that sit on the shelf for a number of years can loose their moisture content and when opened will look dried and cracked. I've noticed old glycerin soaps don't seem to dry out.