1888 KOCH Barber Supply Catalogue

Fascinating reading,good tools to enlarge the pages to see fine details. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcatal03koch Actually ,this was the 1884 catalog,here is the 1888 https://archive.org/stream/illustratedcatal03koch#page/n6/mode/1up

Beyond cool. Thanks for sharing this link.

That is cool! Thanks for posting it.
Those old cabinets and water basins are epic!

That was awesome! I can't figure out what "shaving paper" was.

There's some cool stuff in there!

We need a time machine...Imagine the lather those 10 lb bricks of Williams soaps would produce,and all the aftershaves,waters and colognes were 100% natural,no synthetic aromatics in 1888...

I spent way too much time studying each item on each page, some of those brush handles I am sure would be scoffed at by today's standard but I did get some great idea's. I also didn't realize that barbers had would ever have mug holders for customers. I can only imagine walking into a shop today and seeing a rack of 72 personal mugs hanging on a wall, much less a few of them. One in "my" shave den would be sweet, though.

Such beautiful pieces in the catalogue. Wow. Would love to have many of those items in my bathroom. They definitely don't make stuff like they used to. Many of those items would be very cost prohibitive nowadays. Thanks for sharing.

Vlad said:

That was awesome! I can't figure out what "shaving paper" was.

Click to expand...

Maybe that paper that goes around your neck, for a haircut? The dispenser looks about right.

What about seafoam? Cosmetique?

Or the pompadour haircut on p214?

EDIT: cosmetique appears to be "to colour moustaches eyebrows whiskers &c as well as to keep the hair in its place":



"Sea foam" is also known as "dry shampoo", done with a damp towel: https://books.google.com/books?id=lm8gAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA680 gives recipes, mostly involving alcohol and potassium carbonate or another base. It does not sound like it would be very good for hair, but I suppose the dose makes the poison.

The illustration of the shop floor was also illuminating: all those belts winding around the room, to deliver power. Probably not OSHA compliant.

They don't make it like they used to. Nothing at ikea looks like that. And the any barber that can afford the shops in those pictures wouldn't be working as barbers anymore.

From the Library of Congress. Too cool stuff.

That was great. Thanks for posting. Those barber chairs were incredible. I got a laugh out of the rotary hair brush. Amazing how many products they offered. Some of their products now get nice prices on eBay.

Thanks for sharing!

Above was the 1884 catalog...here is the 1888 https://archive.org/stream/illustratedcatal03koch#page/n6/mode/1up