Your Rooney collection

The text on the bottom of the box says "established over 200 years"? Not sure if that helps to place this brush, because the history of the Rooney brand is pretty vague. References in print go back to at least 1854: The Resources and Manufacturing Industry of Ireland: As Illustrated by the Exhibition of 1853, p419. But either they did little advertising or it has not survived. I suspect that the modern Rooney brand and its association with Robert Alexander Rooney dates from the 1850s. In that case "over 200 years" would refer to a longer family history of brush-making, which could well precede the existence of shaving brushes. The earliest Rooney making brushes that I can find was in Ireland ca. 1803, but brush-makers are rarely mentioned in print.

All that aside, I tend to think the fishing lure handle is a Rooney, maybe ca. 1960s-1980s. That is probably when they were making those blue handles and fox-hunt handles too, so a fishing lure would not surprise me. Tangentially there seem to be some fishing lures that are called shaving brushes, and some anglers even made lures from shaving brushes. So the idea may have started as a joke, and then turned into a product.

Parenthetically Rooney did a little advertising in 1949: Chemist and Druggist Yearbook, Volume 81, p562. This mentioned shaving brushes in "pure Bristle or Badger" and also "Rooney's ladies' hairbrushes in pure Bristle or Nylon, in beautifully finished hardwoods or in laminated plastic, transparent or in a variety of lovely pastel shades." Once you start making transparent or pastel handles for hairbrushes, it is but a small step to fishing-lure handles for shave brushes.

brucered said:

I've seen a few handles with flies in them, they were all customs.

It could be a re knot or a different brand brush in a Rooney box. I don't see Rooney on the brush anywhere and most of the old stickers I've seen, say Rooney on them.

Or it is a one of, but hard to tell without any paperwork accompanying it.

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It's definitely a Rooney. Aside from the decal, the handle shape is also a Rooney standard. Here's one in butterscotch, with a lovely old Simpson Case next to it: (edit: thevez2, who owns the brush in question, pointed out that there are some major differences in handle shape, so mine is apparently unique)

It's closer to this handle design, though again, not exactly:

The old Kent "V" series uses a similar handle shape, but lack the flattened sides at the bottom of the brush. Rooney also made a budget two piece brush in the same style during the 70's and earlier. That style brush was usually rebadged by the customer, though some Rooney branded examples exist.

blzrfn said:

That is definitely a Rooney decal, but I've never seen another like it.

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That's what everyone I talk to says. Rubberset made two piece fishing fly brushes, models 10c and 15c, if I remember correctly, but they didn't use fishing flies nearly as nice (in my opinion).

The seller purchased this brush from a gentleman in his 90's who was moving into a smaller home. He was selling his men's grooming collection. If this brush is a normal example of the stuff he was selling, I wish I'd been able to attend that sale.

mblakele, you may be right about the 1960's-'80's dating info. I think it might be a little older than that though. Two reasons- one, I've never seen that style of box before. I have seen the regular red and blue boxes with some fairly old brushes. Two, I've never seen "pure badger" on a vintage Rooney label. If they mention badger at all, it's always marked "best badger." Fairly meaningless as things go, because Rooney and Kent never bought into the whole hair grading system like Simpson's.

It could very well be from the 50's, as you found, they were working with clear plastic at that time.

Thank you for taking the time to research all that.

I recently purchase a pewter brush said to be Rooney. The sticker is not the typical ROONEY coat-of-arms, but rather the informative "BEST BADGER, STERILIZED, MADE IN ENGLAND" kind. On the bottom of the handle there is a larger "R" and below in some sort of English font, "English Pewter, Sheffield England". What do you think?

Lovely. Cameras have a way of accentuating nicks and dings, so I'm sure it looks much, much better in person. I wouldn't mind owning one of those someday.