A lot of Norwegian Museums is part of what they call “The Digital Museum”, where you can search and browse the collections without having to actually go to a museum you didn’t even know existed in the first place.

The first Norwegian!

A new (torn word – perhaps ‘product’?)
The Besegg razor have a smooth protecting edge instead of the normal teeth.
The protective edge provides a perfectly efficient safety.

Under the drawing:

BESEGG RAZOR
A BETTER SHAVE

Left side of the table:

ADVANTAGES
1. Better, easier, more comfortable shaves
2. Greater safety
3. Easier cleaning
4. Solid, exact and beautiful construction
5. Made in Norway

Right side of the table:

PRICES
Sports model – 5 kroner
Standard model – 6 kroner
Gift model #1 – 10 kroner
Gift model #2 – 12 kroner
For the normal style of razor blades

Bottom:

THE RAZOR WITHOUT TEETH

The very small print:

Printed at Fabritius, Oslo / Besegg Manufacture Inc., Oslo

I’m fairly convinced the actual razor was a knock off or a near copy of a foreign design, or a chimera of different design elements from foreign razors.

5 kroner back in ’44 would be the equivalent of about 112 kroner today, or about 13.25 USD. However; the average yearly income was – according to my sources – 4260 kroner, so the cheapest model would cost 0.12% of your yearly income… not a small amount when you do the math.

Sidebar / fun factoid: Fabritius was a long established printer in Oslo, operating from 1844 to 1991.

So I was poking around on the internet again, and stumbled over a reference to “Balder Barbersåpe” – ie: the shaving soap of the Norse god of light, joy, purity and the summer sun, son of Odin (Wotan) and Frigg (Frige) – and off course I had to dig more.

So spooling back to 1858, a 19 year old boy travelled from Kristiansand (south coast of Norway) to Schleswig (then southern Denmark, now northern Germany and further on to Neuwild by the Rhine before wrapping up in Holland.. his mission? Learn to make soap!

Returning to his home town in 1859, the now 20 year old young man started his own factory for making soap and candles – the first dedicated soap factory in Norway -and named it Walhalla (as the spelling was at the tme)

As for the selection of goods, it was fairly diverse; candles made from tallow and wax, colognes, hair oils, some incense, so called “green soap” (a soft soap made from potash and fats) and – most interesting for us – shaving soap.

“Balder – the soap is mild and clean and free of all harsh chemicals. It’s long lasting and cheap to use.”
Calling your shaving soap for Balder makes a lot of sense when your factory is Valhalla. The package in the image is from the 30’s, as can be guessed from the art and colour scheme.

As for when the factory closed / was sold / changed names I don’t know.. last solid reference I got from a quick search is from 1953, when the factory was almost a century old. There is a current company with the same name in Norway, but it’s only a couple of years old and don’t make soaps at all.