WWI toothbrushes
Does anyone have a clue about military toothbrushes? Were they issued as military toothbrushes or did a soldier bring his own?
I bought one years ago on a visit to London which I’ve attached, it has the name Robert Addis & son and year 1918 on the handle.
There was one on ebay I was watching that finished yesterday, it sold for an unbelievable 128 GBP. WW1 British Tooth Brush | eBay
Tony
Certainly for WWII you get military issue examples and they are often dated and that is probably the only way you can tell they are issue items and I assume the same was true for the great war. Even the WWII versions fetch quite high prices so for WWI the sky is probably the limit, well almost.
Regards,
Jerry
Whateverits just an opinion.
I think a lot of the ones going for silly money on eBay at the moment are actually repros made by the Great War Society a few years back. There has been some incredulous comments about these auctions on the WW1 & WW2 reenactors pages of Facebook and several members of the GWS noted that the manufacturers details were made up by the society based on some members names who were involved in making them.
A list from the great war forum of articles in a soldiers possession and issued to him I think.
Articles of Clothing and Necessaries in Possession.
Boots, ankle, pair 2
Caps, Service Dress 1
Drawers, Pairs 2
Greatcoats, D.M. 1
Jackets, Service Dress 2
Putties, Pairs 1
Trousers, Service Dress 2
Waistcoat, Cardigan 1
Gloves, Leather, Pairs 1
Badge, Cap 1
Bag, Kit 1
Braces, Pairs 1
Brass, Button 1
Brush, Brass 1
Brush, Clothes 1
Brush, Hair 1
Brush, Polishing 1
Brush, Shaving 1
Brush, Tooth 1
Comb, Hair 1
Fork 1
Holdall 1
Housewife 1
Knife, Table 1
Laces, Leather, Spare Pairs 1
Shirts, Flannel 3
Socks, Worsted, Pairs 3
Spoon 1
Titles, Metal Pairs 1
Towels, Hand 2
Regards,
Jerry
Whatever
Thanks for the comments and if the GWS made repros I'm hoping mine isn't one of them. Although as Robert Addis isn't a made up manufacturer so I'll keep my fingers crossed that mine is all good.
Thanks for the list Jerry. Only 2 pairs of undies? Wow that'll mean wearing them inside out and back to front before changing into the clean pair.
Tony
Tony,
I believe the Addis name is for a WW1 period manufacturer. Wear and tear consistent with an old item imo.
mark
Tony,
found this on a dealers site sold about 18 months ago
http://www.wdmilitaria.co.uk/viewphoto.php?x=3
and Tommy pack filler copy here
WW1 Reenactors Equipment : Bone Toothbrush for the Soldiers holdall
Mark,by Mark Holden
Thanks for links and for giving your opinion, it's much appreciated. I bought the toothbrush back when I first started collecting, at the time it didn't even occur to me that people might fake a toothbrush or any other piece of equipment, back then I was young and thought only money was faked
I bought it on a trip to the UK along with a few other items from the same shop and I'm happy to say that although the shop was very expensive, all items I bought were genuine.
A pity the price of the Addis toothbrush on WD Militaria isn't shown, it would have been interesting to see the difference between the prices in the late 80s and 18 months ago. I think I paid something like 10 GBP for it, that's less than the repro today in the 2nd link.
Tony
Tony
I've collected British WW1 kit for 35 years on and off. OK, that doesn't automatically make me an expert! but I have handled repros and good ones. Yours is 100% one of the good ones. These are now extremely scarce and I could see yours making £100 on eekbay. As for the one in the original auction -!
Cheers,
W.
I imagine one near miss from an artillery round might neccessitate a change into a clean pair!
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