Hello everyone, I have been on the lookout for some time now for a vintage shaving brush that struck my fancy to attempt to clean it up and re-knot it. I recently found one in an antique store and now I am trying to find some information about it. I am a bit of a history buff and enjoy learning as much as I can about the items I find and use. (I love my vintage Gillette's and use them daily) I have went on an internet search and am unable to find information about the Merit 99-3 Shaving brush, who made it, when etc. I am hoping someone here can help point me to some information to learn more about it. My plans are to update this thread as I clean it up and return it to a shave ready status. I appreciate any help you can give me, now without further ado here are the pictures.
It was made in New York / New Jersey area. The big six U.S. makers were all located in that area and many times they would see another company's design and make a similar model to their competitors with the same or different materials for the handle. The big six also made brushes for department store chains and also made brushes under various "trade names" to allow lower cost products to be made without affecting their name or higher priced models to define a greater level of luxury. The big six operated much like the multi-tiered car manufacturers did with the various lines of cars (GM - Chevy, Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac) to allow for price, performance and luxury differentiation. Here are the big six brush makers. Rubberset Newark NJ ASR (Ever-Ready) Brooklyn NY Wontshed Troy NY Ever Rite Brush Bronx NY The James Lowe Erskine Co. Brooklyn NY Leopold Ascher Corp New York NY This brush has a very strong resemblance to the Rubberset 400 Aluminum brush series with the handle. Since that was a more expensive handle, this could have very easily been made by Rubberset as a low price brush line. Sadly enough you may have to keep searching until you find an exact brush match with a big six name to find the true maker. I wish I had more information to give you. Good fortune in your search.
So I recently finished repairing this brush to a usable state. I hesitate to call it restored because it is far from it, but it is definitely cleaned, shave ready and has a new 24 mm TGN 3 Band Synthetic knot set a 54mm loft. I went a little too far trying to get the white area clean and noticed the writing starting to wear away so I stopped and called it good enough. The handle, to my surprise, is much more orange than red which is what I though when I originally picked this up. I really enjoyed going through this process. There are things I would definitely do the same and others I would not, but such is the learning process. In either case I have a great "new" brush with a lot of character that will be with me for a long time. Now I officially have the vintage brush AD to add to my others....so ya thanks for that lol.
I just saw a similar brush on B&B, but it had a butterscotch handle and was called a Merit99-4. Hope this helps some.
