Identifying Vintage Williams

[michiganlover]

He has another unused, unboxed puck of identical Williams he bought at the same time. He owes me a couple of bucks, how much do you think I should take off his bill for the 2 pucks?

Your call, but $10-15 sounds fair. That would be between $5-$8 for each.

 

[captp]

Thanks. Don't think I want to sell it; think I'll hold onto it until all the old Williams is gone, then sell it and retire to a tropical paradise_

 

[michiganlover]

Here are a few shots of the Bicentennial Pewter Shaving Mug that is advertised on some of the 1970's era boxes:

 

[Deltaboy]

Thanks Mich.Lover I have not see one in over 25 years.

 

[chefjbs]

Hey Michiganlover... SO i fanally got a chance to get to the Vintage Williams that you sent out in the PIF Game Rickboone1 set up. Now i know why you guys love it so much. I loaded my black and green ER200 brush for a couple seconds. It looked pretty saturated for such a short time... then I hit the bowl not knowing what to expect. And holy crap... the suds where flying!! With the small amount of soap that was loaded, i got the most luxurious shaving lather to date (not like i've been doing this for long!). I was nice and slick and with my fatboy set to 4/5 it was a quick road to a BBS shave. Not too much on the scent department, but great on the lather. i may have too put this into my rotation a little more, but i'm scared to run out too quick!!

thanks again mich.lover.

 

[RazorbackFan]

Gents, I scored my first puck of vintage Williams today and I believe it’s different than any others already listed in this thread. It’s menthol but it’s different than the other menthol boxes already shown. It must be pre-1970 because it’s wrapped in an Aqua Velva coupon wrapper that expires in 1970. The scent of menthol is long gone. The only thing it smells like now is….”old”. I dropped it in a mug and did a test lather tonight. Maybe this vintage stuff is as good as everyone else says it is. I can’t believe I only paid $4 for it. I drove past a hole in the wall antique/junk shop in north Georgia this afternoon and decided to stop in. This was the first antique store I’ve ever been in. I asked if they had Williams Mug Soap and they had no idea what I was talking about. I looked around for a bit and was about to walk out when I saw it sitting in a corner shelf. Paydirt, fellas. Paydirt.

 

[Sir Ronald]

Nice find!

 

[michiganlover]

Gents, I scored my first puck of vintage Williams today and I believe it’s different than any others already listed in this thread. It’s menthol but it’s different than the other menthol boxes already shown. It must be pre-1970 because it’s wrapped in an Aqua Velva coupon wrapper that expires in 1970.

Great find, and thanks for taking the time to post the photos of your box!!

 

[Sledgehammer39]

Gents, I scored my first puck of vintage Williams today and I believe it’s different than any others already listed in this thread. It’s menthol but it’s different than the other menthol boxes already shown. It must be pre-1970 because it’s wrapped in an Aqua Velva coupon wrapper that expires in 1970. The scent of menthol is long gone. The only thing it smells like now is….”old”. I dropped it in a mug and did a test lather tonight. Maybe this vintage stuff is as good as everyone else says it is. I can’t believe I only paid $4 for it. I drove past a hole in the wall antique/junk shop in north Georgia this afternoon and decided to stop in. This was the first antique store I’ve ever been in. I asked if they had Williams Mug Soap and they had no idea what I was talking about. I looked around for a bit and was about to walk out when I saw it sitting in a corner shelf. Paydirt, fellas. Paydirt.

Nice Score..

 

[Deltaboy]

Cool find I have not see a methol box of Williams in a long long time.

 

[HoosierTrooper]

A couple new additions to the Williams stash. First is a Williams shave stick that was sent to me by a very generous member, dougr. This is interesting because the bottom of the container is clearly labelled as being from the Glastonbury plant, but the sticker says that it's from the Cranford plant. Since there's no zip code on the sticker I would guess this is pre-1963 and that the container was leftover from the Glastonbury plant and was used in the early days of the Cranford plant. Anyone else have a theory why both plants are on the container? Looking back through this thread I see that Antique Hoosier has one just like this in post # 39.

Second, I found one of the pucks from the Glen Rock NJ plant at a little general store for $1.44. The owner said she remembers buying it from a drugstore that went out of business many, many years ago and it has just been setting on the shelf ever since.

 

[Deltaboy]

Old school williams rocks!!!!

 

[Greybeard]

A couple new additions to the Williams stash. First is a Williams shave stick that was sent to me by a very generous member, dougr. This is interesting because the bottom of the container is clearly labelled as being from the Glastonbury plant, but the sticker says that it's from the Cranford plant. Since there's no zip code on the sticker I would guess this is pre-1963 and that the container was leftover from the Glastonbury plant and was used in the early days of the Cranford plant. Anyone else have a theory why both plants are on the container? Looking back through this thread I see that Antique Hoosier has one just like this in post # 39.

I think you're right that the containers were left over from the Glastonbury days. My theory is also that Glastonbury Toiletries (the original manufacturing facility that was taken over by former Williams employees after the move) continued to make the shave sticks and luxury Williams versions for J. B. Williams.
Williams was Glastonbury Toiletries biggest customer and the rose scented shave stick and luxury soaps seem to have ceased production when Glastonbury Toiletries went out of business in 1977. I've never seen one with a UPC code.

 

[HoosierTrooper]

Thanks, Peter.

 

[HoosierTrooper]

Old school williams rocks!!!!

Ageed! It's far and away my favorite.

 

[Rybot]

Scored myself two pucks of the 2002 - 2004 ish tallow Williams (Glen Rock, NJ) at some antique stores today. One smells like "old", the other smells soapier. Not as vintage as I was hoping, but I look forward to using the lesser of the two pucks EXCLUSIVELY until the end of my time in the US. I did a test lather with the tallow Williams and it exploded with excellent lather. Can't wait to shave tomorrow!

For the record, back home I have a bowl with a current formulation Canadian Williams and use it regularly. I do enjoy the scent (sorta like Arko to my nose), and the performance is good, but not excellent like MWF or Tabac. That said, it remains in regular rotation and preps me well for the rigors of a work day.

 

[Sledgehammer39]

Scored myself two pucks of the 2002 - 2004 ish tallow Williams (Glen Rock, NJ) at some antique stores today. One smells like "old", the other smells soapier. Not as vintage as I was hoping, but I look forward to using the lesser of the two pucks EXCLUSIVELY until the end of my time in the US. I did a test lather with the tallow Williams and it exploded with excellent lather. Can't wait to shave tomorrow!

For the record, back home I have a bowl with a current formulation Canadian Williams and use it regularly. I do enjoy the scent (sorta like Arko to my nose), and the performance is good, but not excellent like MWF or Tabac. That said, it remains in regular rotation and preps me well for the rigors of a work day.

Sounds like you got the SmithKline Beecham formula which IMHO is better than the current Combe formula.. Good Score

 

[beginish]

I just thought I would chime in here, as I've been using a puck of vintage Williams that TopGumby was kind enough to provide. 7 shaves over the last week and I have found the lather to frankly be absolutely unbelievable. I think it was OldSaw who posted earlier in this thread that few current soaps can match the lather of vintage Williams. He is so right. Only AoS has exceeded this lather. C&S probably will match it as well, but the rest are just pretenders.

 

[malocchio]

You guys have a veritable williams museum here ! that "tonsorial stick" is a real eyefull ...I am posting my lowly entry only because I did not see photos of another solid blue box on here...I date mine 71-76 (?)

 

[Vintage Razor]

Interesting I don't think I have ever seen Williams in a blue box.