Notes
The object is a mid-century American private-label razor blade. The Fuller Brush Company, best known for door-to-door brushes and the "Fuller Brush Man," expanded its range of personal-care and household goods over the mid-twentieth century, and "Club Blue" blades fit that pattern of branded goods carried by its sales force; the blades themselves were made under contract by a specialist. That specialist, Club Razor & Blade Mfg. Corp. of Newark, was a documented New Jersey blade maker that also produced blades under the Marlin name and, in the late 1950s, patented a blade holder using paper strips between the blades. The "ELECTRO THERMICALLY TREATED" and "FULLY GUARANTEED" lines are typical period marketing for heat-treated carbon or stainless blades.
Notes
Provenance is recorded as probable:
The "Admiral" record notes that the blade was likely sent to Cuba inside a postcard. The probable sender is the same relative — a relative who was married to an Englishman and eventually resettled in the United States, in New Jersey and later Florida. That single trajectory accounts for both postal channels without conflict: the British-made blades fit the period of residence in or occasional travel to the U.K., while this U.S.-manufactured "Club Blue" blade fits the New Jersey period, and the manufacturer's own location in Newark, New Jersey is geographically consistent with that resettlement. The two phases are one person's movement rather than two separate senders, so the country of manufacture should still be read off each object individually (here, the United States) while the acquisition channel is treated as continuous.
