Heather 'n Fern SEAFORTH! SHAVING MUG with Brush Circa 1940s

Vintage Heather 'n Fern SEAFORTH! SHAVING MUG with Brush Circa 1940s.

The shaving mug is made of heavy restaurant-ware china and includes the Heather N' Fern Seaforth brand logo with a Scotsman on the front and directions for how to use the shaving soap on the back. The decals, both logo and lettering are brown. The bowl of the mug measures approximately 3" in diameter by 2 ½” high.  With handle, the width is 4 ⅜ wide. The condition of the vintage mug is great with no chips or crazing. 

The shaving brush is approximately 3" long and has a green painted handle trimmed with thin black and silver lines.  The paint is also in great condition and shows no wear.  The brush is not marked and may have or may have not been part of the original set.  However, the green color used for the handle is one of the brand colors used by Seaforth in the 1940s.

Seaforth was the first product in Alfred Douglas McKelvy's men's toiletries and cosmetics line and was developed sometime in the mid to late 1930s.  McKelvy experimented with several fragrances before choosing the final fragrance combination in Heather 'n Fern.  A true marketer, he conducted a "long-distance" type focus group before choosing the final fragrance by sending thousands of samples of the final nine blends asking the recipients to choose their favorite.  In 1954, the fragrance name was changed to Scotch Heather and later simply, Heather.

McKelvy took his lead from the highly successful Old Spice by Shulton and initially sold his product through high end department stores such as Marshall Field (Chicago), B. Altman (New York), Saks (New York), Joseph Horne (Pittsburg), and Strawbridge & Straus (Philadelphia).