Life, 1912-04-04 · page 80 of 80
Life — April 4, 1912 — page 80: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a cartoon or satire**—it's a straightforward advertisement for Williams' Shaving products. The page features two product promotions for The J.B. Williams Company (based in Glastonbury, Connecticut). The top half advertises the "Holder Top Shaving Stick," showing two hands demonstrating how the nickeled cap allows users to grip the soap stick firmly until completely used, preventing fingers from touching the soap directly. The innovation emphasized is hygiene and convenience. The bottom half promotes Williams' Shaving Powder, marketed as an alternative for those preferring powdered soap. It highlights the non-leaking hinged-cover box design and emphasizes the quick, easy lather production. For modern readers: this reflects early 20th-century concerns with hygiene and product convenience, featuring practical innovations (the grip mechanism, the snap-closure box) as selling points rather than luxury or status.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WV illiants glolder Top Shaving Stic The newest form of the famous Williams’ Shaving Stick. The stick is fastened firmly in the nickeled cap, which, when not in use, forms the top of the nickeled box in which the stick is carried. When in use, this ‘‘Holder Top” makes it possible to grasp the stick firmly until the last fraction is used. And the fingers need never come in contact with the soap. The “Holder Top’? Stick furnishes the same delightfully soothing and refreshing lather that has given Williams’ Shaving Stick in the familiar Hinged-Cover, Nickeled Box its world-wide — reputation, » For those who preter their shaving soap in powdered form, it answers every requirement of the most exacting shaver. A little powder shakeff on a wet brush produces, with a minimum of time and effort, a rich, thick, creamy lather, In a twinkling your face is ready tor the razor. The non-leaking, hinged-cover box, opening with a snap of the thumb, closing with the pressure of a finger, is the acme of convenience. The J. B. Williams Company, Glastonbury, Conn. TOmicbooKks.com