A Valencia Slant.

It's been 8 long years since I've allowed a slant to enter my Den. Hopefully this one doesn't exit as fast as my Hoffritz did.

We'll see. I didn't get on well with my last slant. This one is supposed to be mild...for a slant.

Wasn't priced "rare." Was priced in the "uncommon" range. It does have bent teeth, so I don't know what an undamaged cased model would sell for, and I don't know what the demand for them is. Slants really are outside my wheelhouse of expertise.

I didn't know they existed 10 minutes before I bought it. Did a Google search to see if any others were for sale. There wasn't any. I bought it. I've been looking for an A&F slant for about 12 years, and this was 'close enough,' since it was brass, open comb, and a slant. @efsk has a bunch, so either they aren't that rare, he's been collecting them for a while, or he's French.

I think he's been collecting them for a while.

There's four (English language) threads specifically about Valencia razors, from four different shaving forums, and a total of two Worthpoint listings. According to efsk, they were either a subsidiary of Leresche, or Leresche made them for Valencia. The only DE razors Valencia produced were slants.

The following is pure speculation on my part:
The style of manufacture indicates a production start date in the late 1920's or 1930's. I did see at least one 3 piece design, which means they probably continued manufacturing razors into at least the late 30's or early 40's.

(Edit: Unfortunately, my American views on razors biased my logic. American razors ditched the combined baseplate/handle design by the early 1930's. The French (Leresche) continued to produce that design until at least 1951, based on a 1951 Leresche price sheet. Based on that, Valencia razors could have been made any time between 1920 and 1960.)

They manufactured a variety of models, a la Gillette, with the same or similar razors in different packaging ranging from a "popular" model in a cardboard box, all the way up through a "de luxe" model, which came with metal blade, shave stick, and shave brush holders.

The handles are also (like many early Gillette razors) prone to cracking, and as all the razors are open comb, prone to tooth damage. That will have an effect on the amount that survived to present day.

I'd say, and again, this is pure speculation, that they are probably uncommon in France, and very rare outside of France.

It's a common problem with this model Valencia:

It's an 801B, according to well... you. And since you seem to be the primary source of knowledge on these, where did you dig up the Leresche connection with this brand? I know Leresche was the Merkur of France, and often made razors for other companies, but aside from that, I don't see any other connections?

Very informative site! A bit hard to navigate through, but I did find the razor you were talking about. Quite the beast! Makes most "double slants" look quite tame in comparison.