I recently acquired a British single ring and in trying to date it I discovered a multitude of anomalies. There is a thread dedicated to identifying Canada Serial Numbers. Is there any interest in doing the same for British Serial Numbers?
I guess the first distinction to be made is the razors made FOR the British market and those actually made in Britain at Leicester. Since evidence indicates that Leicester became operational in late 1908/early 1909, I would suggest that the razors with serial numbers beginning with A or B may fall into the made for category. There is evidence that Gillette moved out of Leicester in early 1916, but it is likely that production may have been severely curtailed earlier for the several reasons. Firstly there would be a drain of workers to the western front with units forming in late 1914, and to other industries more oriented to wartime production, and secondly the loss of market due to former customers turning into enemies. So actual production of razors at Leicester could have ceased as early as late 1914.
The made in razors with British Patent Numbers would seem to have serial numbers beginning with E, F, G and H. It is possible that during 1909 to 1914 made for razors continued to come from the US or Canada and to have the British Patent, and this may be the explanation for some of the differences.
Porter has speculated that the letters may have indicated the market for which they were bound. Another possibility may be that production workers were split into groups with each group being allocated a letter which was well clear of the Boston productions B. Whatever the reason, production of each letter seems that it may have been concurrent.
If, in an exercise similar to the Canada Serial Number project, information is to be gathered, of what should that information be comprised? There appear to be at least 2 variations of the lettering in the Patent Number, Brit.Pat.No.28763 of 02 and Br.Pat.No.28763.02. The Patent number is located either on the base of the handle or on the inner cylinder. Serial numbers are on the inner cylinder, the base of the handle or the blade guard. The blade and arrow logo appears on some and not others, but not in a consistent chronological manner. My single ring H003530 and Achims H711612 have no logo but I have noted 2 H serial numbers between these that do have the logo. Also, my serial number is on the blade guard and Achims is on the inner cylinder which is the opposite of what is usually expected.
I have compiled a spreadsheet of information for British Patented razors prefixed with E, F, G or H that I have noticed on forums or eBay.
Patent Nos | ||||||||
Brit.Pat.No.28763 of 02 | 1 | |||||||
Br.Pat.No.28763.02 | 2 | |||||||
Ser# | Pat# | GinD | Owner | |||||
Inner | Blade | Inner | ||||||
SERIAL NUMBER | Logo | Cyl | Guard | Hdle | Cyl | Hdle | ||
E102560 | No | |||||||
E202419 | Yes | X | 2 | |||||
E203238 | Yes | X | X | Turtledrum | ||||
E239300 | Yes | X | 2 | MacDaddy | ||||
E266131 | ||||||||
F021233 | No | Yes | ||||||
F206586 | Yes | X | - | - | Yes | Ebay | ||
G024867 (ABC) | Yes | X | None | None | No | Achim | ||
G051727(Pocket) | ||||||||
H000882 | No | X | 2 | No | Ebay | |||
H003530 | No | X | 2 | Yes | GBinOZ | |||
H028400 | Yes | X | 2 | No | Lord Tech | |||
H076... | Yes | X | X | |||||
H094... | Yes | X | X | 2 | ||||
H711612 | No | X | 1 | Achim |
Perhaps this could form a beginning for a Wiki overseen by a member more experienced and learned in such matters than I?