This is the ISKRA Vintage Safety Razor, made in Russia. I ordered this razor last June 12 from a gentleman in Bulgaria. It arrived today, July 20. It is a special edition. The case has a sport car on it. ISKRA means spark. It is from the 1980s and seems to be the same razor as an Astra or Schick that I have seen. I have sought one for a few years, but they are hard to come by. I am glad to get this one.
 |
| ASTRA 501 |
 |
| Schick TTO |
Here is the ISKRA right out of the shipping pack.
It has the instructions in Russian.
 |
This is the Rare Car Edition.
The ГАИ above the car refers to the State Traffic Inspectorate
of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. |
Peter, the gentleman who sold me this razor, included a gift in the package. It was a stamp from circa 1911. Here is some information I found out about it. The word at the top of the stamp is Bulgaria in the cyrillic alphabet. The image is Tsar Ferdinand. At the bottom between the two 10s is cyrillic for stotinki, the plural of stotinka, 1/100 lev.
 |
Bulgaria, circa 1911
10 S. - Tsar Ferdinand.
The S stands for stotinki. A stotinka is 1/100 lev.
|
This information came from Peter, the gentleman who sent me the stamp.
This vintage stamp has been issued in 1912, while Bulgaria still was a Kingdom. It features the King Ferdinand. Here is some more info:
Ferdinand (Bulgarian: Фердинанд I; 26 February 1861 – 10 September 1948), born Ferdinand Maximilian Karl Leopold Maria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was the second monarch of the Third Bulgarian State, firstly as ruling prince (knyaz) from 1887 to 1908, and later as king (tsar) from 1908 until his abdication in 1918. Under his rule Bulgaria entered the First World War on the side of the Central Powers in 1915.
Ferdinand was born on 26 February 1861 in Vienna, a German prince of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry. Princess Maria Antonia Koháry was a Hungarian Noble and heiress who married Ferdinand’s grandfather, Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Ferdinand’s mother, princess Clémentine, was a daughter of Louis-Philippe, King of the French. Ferdinand was raised in his patents’ Catholic faith and baptised in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna on 27 February, having as godparents Archduke Maximilian of Austria and his wife Princess Charlotte of Belgium. He grew up in the cosmopolitan environment of Austro-Hungarian high nobility and also in their ancestral lands in Hungary and in Germany. The House of Koháry descended from an immensely wealthy Upper Hungarian noble family, who held the princely lands of Čabraď and Sitno in present-day Slovakia, among others. The family's property was augmented by Clémentine of Orléans' remarkable dowry.
