When Gillette first started selling their razors, they were packaged in a plain white cardboard box with matching cardboard blade boxes. Nothing fancy at all. This went on for about 8 months. Then... I present to you... the 1903 Gillette. It's the complete set too... lithographed tin razor box, lithographed tin blade box, original blade and double-ring razor. It's estimated that in 1903, Gillette only sold 58 razor sets. You're looking at 1 of them. This, my friends, is the definition of razor porn.
THAT,,,, is just TOO COOL! So happy that you found it. Excellent. Man,, just consider the odds of it being all together after all this time. The tin, razor,,WOW.
holy mother of god - that's gotta be the haul of the month here. I hope you've got insurance coverage on that razor
Very nice indeed. Those boxes must be as rare as the razor itself. About that only 58 sold figure, I wonder if Gillette actually had made more 1903 razors than that, and continued to sell of the remaining stock of them in 1904. Either way, there can't be many of those first year razors out there for collectors. Congratulations on being one of them. Some time you must tell us how you found it.:happy005
I can't confirm the "58 sold" figure, just going by what Phillip Krumholz says in his book. During this time, the razors were almost completely made by hand since they were still inventing and building much of their factory machinery. So "58 sold" is not hard to imagine but it does seem like a rather odd low number. Then again, $5.00 was a ton of money in 1903 if your last name wasn't Carnegie, Ford, Rockefeller or Vanderbilt.
Right. But $5 was also most people's wages for a week's, sometimes 2 weeks, sometimes a month's work. They weren't thinking about spending it on a luxury like a razor. :happy102
A can of Rustoleum would work as well! Seriously though, as Jody said, consider the prices which we can't relate to today. I wonder what that would be in todays dollars. But the packaging and art work that went into these things. Today it's some clamshell plastic that makes you curse opening it. This art work though reminds me of something designed by Alphonse Mucha in the Art Nouveau style. Very classic. And perusing my book again, seeing ads for an entire hand carved wall unit for a barber shop in Oak or Mahogany, $65.00 Same for chairs in Oak or Mahogany, leather, Mohair etc. $45.00 Rent a shop for $10.00 a month. Pay for this stuff out of profits from giving a shave for ten cents. And they were amazed that an occasional barber going for a record made $15.00 dollars in one day! They were straight shaving a guy in less than 2 minutes.....Next! The stories and history of what it took just amaze me. You made $5.00 a week,, well you're sitting high on the hog! OOps,, got my answer, you guys snuck in under me.. sorry.
Amazing find, Jody. Congrats and thanks for sharing those pics! I can read most of the "how to" instructions, but there are a couple of words that I can't read. Could you perhaps post the text (or pictures) from the inside of the lids, and maybe the instructions from the side of the box?
Inside the lid is the usual disclaimers Gillette later started putting on the cardboard shipper boxes - relating to how if you don't use Gillette blades, they won't guarantee it, how selling it for any less than $5.00 is considered patent infringement, etc. When I have it in hand, I'll get some better photos.
