Rotbart Mond-Extra razor in cardboard box, what vintage?

I enjoy vintage Rotbart Mond-Extra razors and I have a few, in a metal tin, a Bakelite box, and a leather travel case. I had seen these in cardboard boxes but had not had a chance to pick one up until today when I stumbled on this one at the flea market. The cardboard box is marked "Made in Germany" and the list of contents is nearly identical to that on the pre-war tin box. The razor is wrapped in tissue, I carefully unwrapped it (I believe it had never been unwrapped) and found the razor itself to be typical for a Mond-Extra, with an open comb, except that the handle appears to be made out of zinc rather than chromed brass. There is one Rotbart "Lila" blade glued into the bottom of the box, that is marked "Made in Germany" and DRP. Can anyone say when this set might have been made? I think it is 1930s vintage but could it perhaps be from the early postwar period instead? Any comments on this item would be appreciated.

Welcome to the BADGER AND BLADE gang. you have is 1927-28 Rothbart-Otto Roth razor, they became part of Gillette in1926, many of these razors were rebranded by Gillette so its hard to id them at times.

Alex to the rescue, once again! Nice find and enjoy!

It's post-war 1950s era.

edit: some further research on this razor at gut-rasiert.de and elsewhere confirmed that Mond Extra Nr.15 (as pictured on the carton) is from the 50s. But you say yours is open comb and zinc alloy so I can't be so sure. I have one of the safety bar Nr.15 razors in the all red cartons that recently surfaced and another member from Germany also feels it is from the 1950s. Maybe he will see this and shed some light on it. Mine I got from Jake http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...Rotbart-15-Stainless-Yoshihiro-Japanese-knife

I have a tin metal boxed Mond Extra open comb as well, all brass from the 30s.

Sweet Haul!

Doug, I looked again more carefully and the razor is closed comb just like the illustration on the box. I think you are right about this one being from the 1950s.

Here are a couple of my 1930s Mond-Extra razors.

i got my info from Waits compedium, it had it at 1927 otto model.

Those blades have "DRP" - the older German patent system. Here are the patents:

• http://depatisnet.dpma.de/DepatisNet/depatisnet?action=bibdat&docid=DE000000598672A published 1935-02-08.
• http://depatisnet.dpma.de/DepatisNet/depatisnet?action=bibdat&docid=DE000000609166A published 1934-06-15.

So the blades, if not the set, cannot be earlier than 1934. I think the DRP term was 15 years, so 1949 at the latest? Not too long after that we should see DBP rather than DRP anyway.

mblakele said:

Those blades have "DRP" - the older German patent system. Here are the patents:

• http://depatisnet.dpma.de/DepatisNet/depatisnet?action=bibdat&docid=DE000000598672A published 1935-02-08.
• http://depatisnet.dpma.de/DepatisNet/depatisnet?action=bibdat&docid=DE000000609166A published 1934-06-15.

So the blades, if not the set, cannot be earlier than 1934. I think the DRP term was 15 years, so 1949 at the latest? Not too long after that we should see DBP rather than DRP anyway.

Click to expand...

the razor patent is 1927, not the blades, maybe the razor model was made for 20 plus years?

Mine from 1930s, a Gillette old-type clone with the best condition box I've ever seen




50s? Silver plated, beautiful, and heavy beast





Mine like yours, Nr.15, zinc alloy with funky plating. I can attest to how great a shaver this is, it never leaves my rotation!




As far as the blades, DRP marked stuff somehow floated into the 50s as artifacts of the period (15 year patent protection) although the Deutsches Reich was gone in 1945.

nemo said:

Mine from 1930s, a Gillette old-type clone with the best condition box I've ever seen

50s? Silver plated, beautiful, and heavy beast

Mine like yours, Nr.15, zinc alloy with funky plating. I can attest to how great a shaver this is, it never leaves my rotation!

As far as the blades, DRP marked stuff somehow floated into the 50s as artifacts of the period (15 year patent protection) although the Deutsches Reich was gone in 1945.

Click to expand...

yours is post ww2 war date Roth, like this one

mblakele said:

Those blades have "DRP" - the older German patent system. Here are the patents:

• http://depatisnet.dpma.de/DepatisNet/depatisnet?action=bibdat&docid=DE000000598672A published 1935-02-08.
• http://depatisnet.dpma.de/DepatisNet/depatisnet?action=bibdat&docid=DE000000609166A published 1934-06-15.

So the blades, if not the set, cannot be earlier than 1934. I think the DRP term was 15 years, so 1949 at the latest? Not too long after that we should see DBP rather than DRP anyway.

Click to expand...

Interesting, thanks. I just received a few Rotbart blades today with same DRP patents, this is useful dating. Surely they must not have made many blades during the darkest days of the war?

Great razor! And outstanding thread (one for the real experts)!

Thanks for the information, I recently acquired an open comb Rotbart off the bay but it has damage to the teeth.

I own a mod. 15 rotbart and an open comb rotbart. I re-post here a pic that i've already posted in another "rotbart thread" as a starting point to introduce my question.




In the picture you can see a rotbart 15 compared to a gillette razor: it's evident that the gillette razor is only a rebranded rotbart (I can't find any gillette razor that could be the "originator"). I know that there are also many gillette rebranded with rotbart brand.
Leaving out the rebranding cases and the fact that Gillette razors are for sure the most cloned razors, I'm wondering if Gillette used in its products designs and "technology" taken by other company that Gillette acquired, for example rotbart.
What do you think?
andy

Rotbart was taken over by Gillette in 1926, so you can find many razors in the 30s, that was rebranded in both ways. As Gillette set it has the number #35