Two of my recent purchases: 1956 British set no.59 (71g) in the leatherette case. Brit Pat 693094 1962 Rocket set no.54a (68g) in the blue plastic case. Brit Pat 693094 I believe the original no.54 set came with a 4 pack of blades, (Gillette blue extras?) rather than ten. The hunt begins. I've always said I wasn't really a collector but maybe I'm getting the bug.
very cool.you blue cased set is a rocket hd set..56-8 ish .the 54a set from 1962 is different..they are both in fantastic shape..
The picture you posted is the 1962 razor - it looks likes mine The 1953-4 rocket hd has 'Patent Pending' written on the inside, my razor has Brit Pat 694093. Are the cases different? https://mr-razor.com/Rasierer/One-P...t HD 1953 Patent Pending-beschriftet-Logo.jpg
There is a 1957 French set in the blue case, 694093 II but my razor doesn't have the II written in it anywhere. That's what lead me to the 1962 version. Seriously, now that I'm looking the are loads of super speeds.
do you see the ring/groove near the top of your handle same as your #59 set.?.the 1962 54a set razor pictured doesn't have that..the 11 you are speaking of on the baseplate is 57 ish .yours is probably 1955 or 6.
Ah - nice spot. I completely missed that. Thank you. I wonder if I have the right razor with a wrong case or perhaps just a razor that hasn't made it into Mr. Razor's site. I'm intrigued now.
The rhodium plating should give it away. I think the only other set that razor came in was a deluxe style leather cased traveller set. Edit: to clarify, I'm referring to the rhodium plated 58 TV special. The knurling was unique to those 3 razors (Brit. '58 TV special (aka No. 80 set), Deluxe Traveller set, and the U.S. '58 TV special) but only the first two had rhodium plated handles.
I don't discount the razor was originally sold as a 58 TV special in England just that the case and in the ad it looks to be same type of knurling as a No 80 set sold in 1961. With that said the ad isn't clear enough to use a 100% positive verification which razor is in that set. It is either a British TV special or standard British flare tip.