Any of you guys and or gals collect things like barber chairs or barber poles or anything that relates to barber shops?
I do to some extent. Wetshaving is almost a natural lead into Barberiana. Its a fascinating hobby, to me anyway. The bible is Barbershop - History and Antiques by Christian Jones. Most into Barberiana rely on this book to show'em the way. If you want a barber pole or barber chair , ebay is a possibility but the BEST place is Craigslist. Barber poles and many styles of antique barber chairs and signs show up continually. You have to negotiate as many people don't understand how to price those things. The problem with most barber chairs seems to be the metal is damaged. Before 1940 all chairs were nickel plate , afer 1940 chairs are chrome. The metal always seems to be the one thing that dooms many chairs . What most don't know is that all barber chairs no matter what era disassemble. A medium sized wrench and WD40 will completely take one apart for transport and easy lifting. Vintage electric barber poles are nice but can be expensive especially in the bidding wars for them on ebay, again Craigslist always has them. Even if one is found with damage it can be repaired as the William Marvy company sells replacement parts for all the classic barber poles their own and other older brands. If ebay is any way to judge, Barberiana is growing as the vintage barber shop items are selling more and more briskly and like Gillettes prices are rising.
I feel kind of dumb asking this question because I started this thread but what else would be considered a barber shop collectible besides Barber Poles and Barber Chairs? I personally wouldn't think a straight or DE would be a Barber shop collectible becaue almost every man had one. The same with brushes and soaps or creams because again every man had one but I could be wrong.
Straights are considered barber shop collectibles because barbers used them. So are hones and old strops again because they were used. Any item used in or found in a tradtional barber shop are collectible objects. Razor blade displays were sometime featured in barber shops as barbers sold blades, some of the displays featured barbers in them. Sterilizers, barber bottles, mugs , photographs featuring barber shops, barber shop furniture, cigar signs, barber shop signs, hair or grooming signs, towel steamers, barber supply catalogs, vintage clippers on and on. Basically the tools of the barber trade and the contents of the barber shop make up Barberiana. Barber shop speicific shaving soap and the mugs used by barbers or the mugs used by patrons of the shop that were bought from the barber are highly collectible.Shaving brushes are considered barberiana but confined for the most part to the kinds of brushes a barber might use. Vintage shaving gear is what many forum guys collect and some of there personal collections might overlap with barberiana. Safety razors, vintage home shaving soap, shaving stick tins, home use shaving mugs, vintage talc and after shave , shaving stands, Gillette collectibles etc. would make up this area. On ebay I always use the search term " barber shop" then look at collectibles to search collectibles. Then I use search term " vintage shaving" to look at vintage shaving gear. They are distinct categories but there is over lap and no law against enjoying or buying either.
