1921 Milady Decolletee

My wife and I were antiquing in northern Vermont. My wife came across this travel razor set.
It is a 1921 Milady Decolletee with a jade pearl case. I identified it at Mr Razor's website

This is the closed case.





It swivels open to reveal the storage compartments.




The compartments hold the handle, a blade box and the razor head.





The assembled razor is in good shape. The top plate has gold plating loss. I am sure this is from sliding around in the hard plastic case for 95 years as opposed to actual use. The blade box is in beautiful shape.



I shaved with it this morning. It was more aggressive than I expected. But still smooth. I like the BBS shave it gave me despite a few weepers. I'll chalk those up to operator error.

A great razor in great shape. I will put this into my use rotation.

Phil

That's a nice find, Phil.

Congratulations, Phil!

Nice. I got one on eBay several years ago. The Old Types are first-rate shavers. Interesting how some feel more blade-against-the-skin aggressive than others. My Milady is pretty mild.

Very nice.

Congrats on the find.

I dug up a pic of my Milady -- before cleaning...



...and after:

Nice pics Viseguy.

I don't consider the Milady to be aggressive. It was just more aggressive than I was expecting compared to other Gillettes of that era that I own.
I have shaved twice more with it and it is a pleasure. No weepers. They were operator error based on my expectations during that first shave.

Phil

Nice pics Viseguy.

I don't consider the Milady to be  aggressive. It was just more aggressive than I was expecting compared to other Gillettes of that era that I own.
I have shaved twice more with it and it is a pleasure. No weepers. They were operator error based on my expectations during that first shave.

Phil

Hi, Phil. I've had several Old Types along the way, and they varied widely in terms of aggressiveness. One that I got from the late cooncatbob was mild. The Milady I posted above is actually pretty medium. My most aggressive OT, and my favorite, is still a beater that some eBay seller threw in for free when I bought my GEM 1912. There was a rotting blade wedged between the top cap and the base plate, and it took hours of elbow grease (and heat and WD40) to pry them apart, and hours more to get the thing rust-free and clean -- when you invest that much time and energy in a razor you become attached to it. Whenever I use it I think of the gent who owned it before me.