1958 GILLETTE RHODIUM PLATED FLAIR TIP TV ROCKET SET

[M-CLEAN UK]

PLANofMAN

When you say rarer.

I may be wrong here but am I right in that it was only made in 1958.

Have you had one?

 

[M-CLEAN UK]

What made me interested was seeing this write up -

Vintage 1958 Rhodium Plated Gillette Flare Tip Rocket

Read 1 review

£99.50

Unavailable



This is an incredibly rare rhodium plated, English 1958 Flare Tip Rocket.
Made only in 1958 like their USA made counterpart; The TV Special Super Speed.

We don't believe that we've ever seen one of these razors before, let alone one in such amazing unrestored condition.

This razor is in very good all-round condition, the twist to open doors work perfectly. The head is shiny and bright, so too is the handle, no dents, no plating loss.
The head does have a few, tiny cosmetic type, scratches and some very slight water staining on one corner but that aside, this is a very nice razor.

From Executive Shavings website

 

[PLANofMAN]

PLANofMAN

When you say rarer.

I may be wrong here but am I right in that it was only made in 1958.

Have you had one?

No. Never owned one. I've owned two of the American versions but not the British one.
There are only two standard Rockets that were Rhodium plated. The 1957 traveller set, and the 1958 TV special. The TV Special is a unique razor. Where the knurling on all other razors of that style have cross cut grooves, the 1958 TV specials don't.

American TV special on the left, regular super speed on the right.

That makes it a very unique and easily identifiable razor. Add in that the TV Special cases were also unique to that razor, and you have some rare razors. Also, the Rockets were not as widely produced as the Super speeds, and much of that production ended up in Australia, Germany, Italy, Argentina, and Brazil, just to name a few export markets.

So yeah. It's a rare razor.

 

[pedro083]

There not that rare I have 2 at least, good razors

 

[Wishbone]

I've had three and flogged all of them. For info ... it's only the handle that's Rhodium plated..... One was sold the other day on Fleabay for something daft like £300 or so ..... No one I've spoken to yet knows why

I have a not-so-common gold version ...... Of which I've only seen two or three so far

Edit: Just found it ......... It went for £205...... still a whopper price for one of those .....

 

[SeanC]

I've had three and flogged all of them. For info ... it's only the handle that's Rhodium plated..... One was sold the other day on Fleabay for something daft like £300 or so ..... No one I've spoken to yet knows why

I have a not-so-common gold version ...... Of which I've only seen two or three so far

Edit: Just found it ......... It went for £205...... still a whopper price for one of those .....

The only logical reason I can think of was that it was cased. Typical price is usually c£50 i.e. about 2x the price of a standard Rocket

 

[Wishbone]

The case is pretty much a bog standard for 60s black handled flare tips, too ...... I've seen a fair few of them knocking around here and there. Two of the ones I sold were cased and never got that kind of interest. It's a bloody mystery to me.

 

[SeanC]

I've had three and flogged all of them. For info ... it's only the handle that's Rhodium plated..... One was sold the other day on Fleabay for something daft like £300 or so ..... No one I've spoken to yet knows why

I have a not-so-common gold version ...... Of which I've only seen two or three so far

Edit: Just found it ......... It went for £205...... still a whopper price for one of those .....

I just found and bought one, albeit poorly described and photographed as well as being covered in crud, for that in Shillings rather than Pounds

 

[M-CLEAN UK]

It sounds as if there are a few about then and they come up for sale quite often?

 

[SeanC]

It sounds as if there are a few about then and they come up for sale quite often?

Uncommon would be an appropriate description for a razor by itself imho. I've seen about 1 per month on sale on eBay this year which isn't that many in the scheme of things. Cased, mint and with instructions etc is though very rare.

Rarest of the rare within the rockets is the blue tip rocket (not the similar blue tip English superspeed)

 

[Wishbone]

Here you go ..... Dodgy phone pic ....