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Ever Ready 1914 and Ever Ready 1924 Identification
- Thread starter Norfolkdick
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You guys move fast!!!
Here are a couple of razors you may appreciate then.
And I have been calling the ER ”The New Ever-Ready” or more handily, the New ER, as named on the razor - rather than an ER 1909. The Yankee though, says only “Yankee Safety Razor” (maybe a modern replacement for their earlier Yankee basket razors?)
What we don't know a whole heap about is the razor that we've come to call the 1909, which is for all intents and purposes a proto-1924. Also sold under the Yankee brand, which is a little unusual for a British branding ... unless that design was simply released in the US under that brand.
I suppose I'm coming to the proposal that some esoteric strand of Ever-Ready might well have existed alongside the more documented mainstream and that there may well have been some connection between the British wing and the Canadian wing. This 1914 is an early one.
Here are a couple of razors you may appreciate then.
And I have been calling the ER ”The New Ever-Ready” or more handily, the New ER, as named on the razor - rather than an ER 1909. The Yankee though, says only “Yankee Safety Razor” (maybe a modern replacement for their earlier Yankee basket razors?)
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Internet find.
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The Yankee safety razor
I am finding it extremely difficult to find information on this Ever Ready prototype. As I understand it, the founder of Gem (who also worked for the Kampfe brothers for 23 years), left to found the Yankee safety razor company in 1903. The name was short-lived, as, in either 1904 or 1905, it...
www.badgerandblade.com
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"disease-breeding Barber shops" 
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Yankee became Ever-Ready (I really should have known this @TobyC) in 1905 and so the 1909 (as well call it) was seen under both Yankee and Ever-Ready brandings. Lovely razors there @Pogonaut ... I was very lucky to land on a completely unused 1909!
But look! The Ever-Ready man is holding a 1914 < what does this mean? Either the 1914 design is much older, or they were peddling off old stock by this point ... or the 1909 had a longer marketplace showing than the flash in the pan that we thought it was. In this set, I'd presume the latter and that now the date is 1909 (or afterwards), they're now branding the Yankee as an Ever-Ready. But, the British connection ("British Made" on the razor itself) is still puzzling; and, that the Ever-Ready man is holding a 1914. I'd presume that makes this set at least 1914.
I'd love a Yankee.
But this does beg the question, how does a small offshot from a cutlery company in New York end up with a British wing? It think I'm making a link here (without yet any facts) to what might well be a proto-1914 that @Pogonaut shows us above that came together with a British/Canadian connection (rather than US/Canadian?).
Fascinating! This artefact absolutely re-opens the box on what we thought we knew about the development of the Ever-Ready (Co.Inc. > Corp.) alongside Gem (Gem Cutlery Co. > Co.Inc. > GEM Safety Razor Corp.) with that merger in 1919. Clearly there was something else going on over here in Britain through that period. We did get an inkling (what with the British 1909) but nobody has really set down any credible account of this piece of the history.
Yeah, fascinating!
I'd still love to see @Geofnay's oddity GEM.
But look! The Ever-Ready man is holding a 1914 < what does this mean? Either the 1914 design is much older, or they were peddling off old stock by this point ... or the 1909 had a longer marketplace showing than the flash in the pan that we thought it was. In this set, I'd presume the latter and that now the date is 1909 (or afterwards), they're now branding the Yankee as an Ever-Ready. But, the British connection ("British Made" on the razor itself) is still puzzling; and, that the Ever-Ready man is holding a 1914. I'd presume that makes this set at least 1914.
I'd love a Yankee.
But this does beg the question, how does a small offshot from a cutlery company in New York end up with a British wing? It think I'm making a link here (without yet any facts) to what might well be a proto-1914 that @Pogonaut shows us above that came together with a British/Canadian connection (rather than US/Canadian?).
Fascinating! This artefact absolutely re-opens the box on what we thought we knew about the development of the Ever-Ready (Co.Inc. > Corp.) alongside Gem (Gem Cutlery Co. > Co.Inc. > GEM Safety Razor Corp.) with that merger in 1919. Clearly there was something else going on over here in Britain through that period. We did get an inkling (what with the British 1909) but nobody has really set down any credible account of this piece of the history.
Yeah, fascinating!
I'd still love to see @Geofnay's oddity GEM.
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Maybe not so much of an oddity and not so old. It turns out to be a Peerless set in an Ever Ready box and case but with the razor marked GEM Made in England. (I hope you can see from the very poor picture). Complete with instructions and 'holding tape'; possibly meant for the Canadian or Australian market?
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Let's take another look at my 1909 ...
The outer box has no other markings.
The strop has a "Patent applied for" but "Made in the USA" stropper ... with c.1910s? Damaskeene-like handle.
"New Yellow Metal ... wears the same throughout" ... so, er, polished brass than?
Seven and Six.
... which tells us that is about a day's wage for a British labourer at the time.
Complete outfit for the fellow to shave at home, away from those awful "disease-spreading Barber shops".
RADIO Steel blades
RADIO Steel blades ... A-ha! ASR Corp < so, definitely a set put together post-1919
So, I think actually this is a later model than we think and a throw-back/reissue under the Ever-Ready brand of the older Yankee. British Made is still puzzling, though. We certainly consider the 1924 a development of this 1909, but was that R&D done in a hitherto unknown British facility?
Back to @Pogonaut's curious 1914. Was the 1914 developed in a hitherto unknown Canadian facility?
The outer box has no other markings.
The strop has a "Patent applied for" but "Made in the USA" stropper ... with c.1910s? Damaskeene-like handle.
"New Yellow Metal ... wears the same throughout" ... so, er, polished brass than?
Seven and Six.
... which tells us that is about a day's wage for a British labourer at the time.
Complete outfit for the fellow to shave at home, away from those awful "disease-spreading Barber shops".
RADIO Steel blades
RADIO Steel blades ... A-ha! ASR Corp < so, definitely a set put together post-1919
So, I think actually this is a later model than we think and a throw-back/reissue under the Ever-Ready brand of the older Yankee. British Made is still puzzling, though. We certainly consider the 1924 a development of this 1909, but was that R&D done in a hitherto unknown British facility?
Back to @Pogonaut's curious 1914. Was the 1914 developed in a hitherto unknown Canadian facility?
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My bog standard 1924 (L) and 1914 with box (R).
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Ah, yes, GEM (Made in England) was indeed an Australian market thing.
Also known as "snap-action":
Left-most is a "New Improved" from my British Peerless Set (round aluminium handle), the middle "Snap-action" from my British Bathroom Set (another round handle, akin to the Personna DE razors) and right-most "Snap-action" from my British GEM Peerless Set.
I have a slightly different shipper (box) without the open front:
You could also get them in Woolworths cases (Woolworths were also in Aus, in fact remained a high street shop there after the closure in the UK):
Plated and brass, with the GEM Made in England bottom right.
Green and red shown here, I also have brown. I'd love to khow what the other four colours were.
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Those are some wonderful razors! That boxed New ER 1909 is terrific!
I like to think the NEW ER is not recognized enough for its importance in the whole razor manufacturing world. The designer Julius Bueno De Mesquita was originally from England, was on scene to form GEM in the very early days, was involved in the formation of ASR, went to England in 1908 to form a British manufacturing facility, was in top executive roles at the formation of ASR Corp in 1919 as a Vice President, was there through the whole industry blade transition in the 1930s, and became ASR President in 1949. Clearly he was a dedicated and very important Razorman.
Returning to Britain in 1908 to set up a manufacuring facility, I believe it no small coincidence that he designed a razor which was manufactured in Britain - at the plant he built. Was this incentive from ASR to let him do this, or good practical thinking so there wouldn’t be any patent issues bw England and the US manufacture? Must have been some reason. He was back and forth bw the two continents continually well into the 1930s and also oversaw manufacture in Brooklyn simultaneously during the decade of the WW1 and beyond. Shared boxes/sharpeners/cases? Why the heck not? The Yankee, British made but with little obvious indication of where it was manufactured - sounds like the right one to sell back into the US. Makes sense to me.
This fella, who was referred to as “J.B.”, and also by some as the “ Dean“ of the industry, is still unrecognized as one of the very most top important figures in history regarding razor history and design. British born. Top Gun!
I learned a lot of this stuff at Razors.Page, a wonderful site by a British fella nicked as Riverrun. (A member here?) Awesome job done on all sorts of razor stuff, and particularly digging info around this man, De Mesquita.
His razor, these razors here, the 1909s, to me, represent the missing link to the entire enchilada on the Single Edge razor side. The sales transition into Europe, the guidance of design well into the 1950s, his stamp is on everything. It will have impacted Gaisman, Gillette and a multitude of others with De Mesquita standing strong through it all while others drop like flies. So, a British boy can be blamed for much of the design history of it all. Yeah J.B.!!
Image from Razors.page
I still know nothing of the Canadian connection. Time to look!
I like to think the NEW ER is not recognized enough for its importance in the whole razor manufacturing world. The designer Julius Bueno De Mesquita was originally from England, was on scene to form GEM in the very early days, was involved in the formation of ASR, went to England in 1908 to form a British manufacturing facility, was in top executive roles at the formation of ASR Corp in 1919 as a Vice President, was there through the whole industry blade transition in the 1930s, and became ASR President in 1949. Clearly he was a dedicated and very important Razorman.
Returning to Britain in 1908 to set up a manufacuring facility, I believe it no small coincidence that he designed a razor which was manufactured in Britain - at the plant he built. Was this incentive from ASR to let him do this, or good practical thinking so there wouldn’t be any patent issues bw England and the US manufacture? Must have been some reason. He was back and forth bw the two continents continually well into the 1930s and also oversaw manufacture in Brooklyn simultaneously during the decade of the WW1 and beyond. Shared boxes/sharpeners/cases? Why the heck not? The Yankee, British made but with little obvious indication of where it was manufactured - sounds like the right one to sell back into the US. Makes sense to me.
This fella, who was referred to as “J.B.”, and also by some as the “ Dean“ of the industry, is still unrecognized as one of the very most top important figures in history regarding razor history and design. British born. Top Gun!
I learned a lot of this stuff at Razors.Page, a wonderful site by a British fella nicked as Riverrun. (A member here?) Awesome job done on all sorts of razor stuff, and particularly digging info around this man, De Mesquita.
His razor, these razors here, the 1909s, to me, represent the missing link to the entire enchilada on the Single Edge razor side. The sales transition into Europe, the guidance of design well into the 1950s, his stamp is on everything. It will have impacted Gaisman, Gillette and a multitude of others with De Mesquita standing strong through it all while others drop like flies. So, a British boy can be blamed for much of the design history of it all. Yeah J.B.!!
Image from Razors.page
I still know nothing of the Canadian connection. Time to look!
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No thoughts on the Canadian connection. I haven't looked much at Canadian patent applications because they are all bad-quality copies of typewriter documents. If I can't OCR it I stay away. Maybe there are some hints if one looks at Canadian patents of the time. I'm busy.
As far as Julius Bueno de Mesquita is concerned: A fascinating character. The easiest inventor to find documents for. He was so filthy rich and travelled back and forth between the US and the UK on luxury ocean liners all the time, leaving a paper trail a nautical mile wide. (He never flew to the UK as far as I can tell. Maybe because his stepson died in a plane crash?).
I'm not even sure he actually invented the "1924". He was a businessman and manager. Then he shows up in 1909 in the UK with a patent?
My best bet is that he was sent to the UK to open a factory and was given a patent to take with him. Maybe I'm doing him an injustice, but I can't see him tinkering for months to perfect an invention if he could do some proper managing and bookkeeping instead.
I love his story though. When he was a kid he grew up in the piss-poor area where Jack the Ripper was active at the time.
Then he went to the US and became one of the richest people in the country.
Maybe only topped by the story of the Kampfe brothers who from an equally poor background became the largest landowners in New York.
Wrong on both accounts. riverrun is always spelt without a capital R and although I live in the UK, I'm not a 'British fella'.
Thank you very much for the compliments though. Appreciated.