How long was Gillette "Diamond w/ Known The World Over" Baseplate stamp used?

tri33 · May 28, 2013

I picked up a D series 1916 Single Ring today at my local antique mall. When I looked on the bottom of the baseplate it had the Gillette Diamond logo in addition to Known The World Over right below it, located on the bottom right corner. Inasmuch, there isn't a "Made In..." stamp.

This baseplate stamp can be found on 1915/16 razors. Although, those were the only years I was able to find evidence of that type of baseplate stamps use. As a result, I got to wondering how many years the stamp was used for.

Does any know? Or have any razors that have the stamp that are earlier than 1915 or later than 1916?

Here is my Single Ring:

Here is the stamp:

Here is the earliest razor that Mr. Razor has that bears the stamp: 1915 Milady

Here is the latest razor that Mr. Razor has that bears the Stamp: 1916 Aristocrat

alex2363 · May 29, 2013

May 1908 King C. Gillette filed trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office at the same time in separate goods and services classes. King Gillette filed trademark applications under early company name, Gillette Safety Razor Company. Applications were filed at the same time and each registration was granted on a different date. Registration for the Gillette trademark was assigned to razors and razor blades and was granted on October 1908, and used on the razors most likely til 1915-16.

mblakele · May 29, 2013

This topic seems to come up periodically. Last time around, Porter summarized the situation quite well.

MacDaddy said:
The diamond logo trademark was registered in 1908 and was showing up in ads and on the "New Process" blades in that same year. The cases were sporting the diamond logo definitely by 1909, but in the US it seems to have been entirely usual for the razors not to be stamped under the guard plate at all until at least a few years later.

I just did a quick audit of some of the easier to grab razors from my cabinet that were from the right time frame, and the earliest one there with anything under the head was a 1916 Aristocrat with just the diamond logo and no "Made in USA." There's a pretty large gap in the ones I looked at, though -- jumps from 1911 to 1916 -- so I'm not at all suggesting that they weren't stamped until then. I'd have to do a bit more digging through my backlog to see if I have other examples between those dates to narrow things down further.

Long story short, assuming that it's American made, I'd say your 1911 is perfectly fine without the logo stamp under the head. In fact, I'd be far more surprised if it had one.

To add to what Alex posted, Gillette claimed a "first use" of 1908-05-16 according to http://www.trademarkia.com/gillette-71034984.html. From what I have seen, the diamond logo began on blades and blade cases in 1908. Then it spread to razor cases in 1909. The razors themselves were not stamped until even later, although apparently there were some examples of engraved caps around 1909.

tri33 · May 29, 2013

mblakele said:
This topic seems to come up periodically. Last time around, Porter summarized the situation quite well.

To add to what Alex posted, Gillette claimed a "first use" of 1908-05-16 according to http://www.trademarkia.com/gillette-71034984.html. From what I have seen, the diamond logo began on blades and blade cases in 1908. Then it spread to razor cases in 1909. The razors themselves were not stamped until even later, although apparently there were some examples of engraved caps around 1909.

Ok thanks for the information. I have seen a razor with an engraved cap on Mr. Razor, although I haven't seen the particular stamp I'm stalking about on razors before 1915 and later than 1916 as Gillette switch to the diamond logo stamp sans "Known The World Over", in addition to adding a "Made In..." stamp.

Such as 1917 Old Type Set:

I guess it looks like the Diamond with Known The World Over baseplate stamp was only used for two years.

mblakele · May 29, 2013

tri33 said:
Ok thanks for the information. I have seen a razor with an engraved cap on Mr. Razor, although I haven't seen the particular stamp I'm stalking about on razors before 1915 and later than 1916 as Gillette switch to the diamond logo stamp sans "Known The World Over", in addition to adding a "Made In..." stamp.

Ah, I see now. Thanks for clarifying. It would be interesting to know the exact history of that change.

From what I see the trademark was for the diamond logo alone, without the motto. The motto might be covered by a different registration, or might have been considered too generic at the time. The logo and motto were usually found together on blades and cases. But I expect they decided that the text was too small when stamped on the razor, so they dropped it.

shavefreak · May 29, 2013

It was the summer of 1908 when the artist made the logo and King liked it. Great story written by the artist here

MacDaddy · May 29, 2013

I don't know that we've seen enough examples in the 1913-1915 range to be able to say for sure when they started stamping the logo onto the razors. If I were to just take a stab in the dark I'd say that it would make a lot of sense for them to have made the shift in 1914 when they released the "flood" of new models (the Bulldog, Aristocrat, and Milady Décolletée), but there's no real reason it couldn't have been slightly later than that.

Another example of the "full" logo with the tagline appearing on razors that we've seen are the somewhat strange British ones like the one I posted about back here. In their case the logo is stamped both on the top side of the guard plate and the underside of the cap. I have a hunch that the serial numbers out of the British plant may have started out with the "E" prefix in a similar way that the Canadian plant appears to have started their production with "C" and "PC" prefixes, so the serial number on that one that I posted shouldn't necessarily be taken to line up with the American series.

tri33 · May 29, 2013

Thank you for your input, it would be interesting to see if anyone has a 1914 razor with the stamp, as your hypothesis seems pretty plausible.

Also your double stamped British razor is very cool! That is a very intriguing stamp layout. Thanks for sharing, I had never seen that before.

brothers · Mar 13, 2014

In these photos above, it's called a Single Ring in one photo, and a 1916 Aristocrat in another one. What's the difference? I have a 1914 Aristocrat that has the fluted handle. Both of those mentioned earlier have a straight round handle with 3 bands of knurling. The reason I've ended up here with this thread is that there is one with the ivory celluloid case and 2 blade boxes in an antique mall nearby, and it has the straight round handle with 3 knurled rings. How do I identify this one, whether its a single ring or Aristocrat? (Open comb of course.)

alex2363 · Mar 13, 2014

brothers said:
In these photos above, it's called a Single Ring in one photo, and a 1916 Aristocrat in another one. What's the difference? I have a 1914 Aristocrat that has the fluted handle. Both of those mentioned earlier have a straight round handle with 3 bands of knurling. The reason I've ended up here with this thread is that there is one with the ivory celluloid case and 2 blade boxes in an antique mall nearby, and it has the straight round handle with 3 knurled rings. How do I identify this one, whether its a single ring or Aristocrat? (Open comb of course.)

Go by the case to determine a model, the Single Ring is a name that signifies the one ring as opposed to the similar looking 2 rings/Double ring of the earlier models from 1903-1906 era.

Double Ring razor design

Single ring razor design----- on a Aristocrat model and Combination set model

combination set model

MacDaddy · Mar 13, 2014

Gillette seems to have stopped producing the flare-tipped Aristocrat sometime during the later 'teens and switched to using a standard Single Ring in the Aristocrat set. At that point it's the case that really makes it an Aristocrat.

brothers · Mar 13, 2014

Alex and Porter, thanks for the information. Very helpful!

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