I was very dissatisfied with the VDH boar brush I had due to it taking an extremely long time to create an even halfway decent lather so I decided to give a Parker brand badger brush a try. I ordered the Parker 220501 through Amazon for $25 and it included a lucite stand for the brush. It is leaps and bounds ahead of the VDH boar in terms of lather. It also only lost 3 hairs during its first use and none in subsquent uses and turned my Conk's Lime into a thick, rich lather in no time. For someone new to DE/wet shaving I'd say this is a good place to start for a reasonalbe quality brush at a good price (and with a functional stand nonetheless).
