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So I have been looking for a Gargoyle handy oiler for awhile now and i got curious today. I priced this oiler to my buddy Darin as a WWII oiler but little did I know what was under the wrapper. He joked and said what if it is a Gargoyle can.

So I got home today after thinking about it all day and peeled it off slowly when I got home. I was glad that it slid right off with no damage to the wrapper.
Here is what I found!!!


Thanks for reading

Dan

Here are some pics of it cleaned!



Next to some of my other oilers and Darin's sleeve!

Absolutely incredible!!! GREAT find!!! Congrats!!!

Darin. Thanks for your insight and the wrapper will be going in your collection for the help
Thanks
Dan

Good job Dan...like I told you on the phone tonight, curiosity probably would have gotten the best of me after I got it too, wondering if it were a Gargoyle under there.

Pretty kool Dan!
"Socony-Vacuum" is very familiar but I don't recall noticing "Standard-Vacuum" on anything.

Was this this the first version of the wording when Standard took over? Have you seen it on other Gargoyle products?...any signs?

Any idea what the time frames are for each?

Standard Vacuum was very popular in Australia for a long time. I have one pegasus oiler with that as well. Look at the one on the right.

Dan, THATS AWESOME!! Aren't those gargoyle handy's hard to find??

Yes they are hard to find for sure. I have only seen 3 since i have been collecting. This one cleaned up a bit too since the photos i took. All the glue came off the can and it is MINTY. Best 60 bucks i have spent in awhile that is for sure. Going to be a nice piece in my collection for a long time to come.
Dan

Awesome!! I remember Randy posting something about these and said he hasn't seen many. Glad it went into the right hands!

"Going to be a nice piece in my collection for a long time to come."
Now didn't you say that about the aircraft plate?! LOL

But it is a great find!2 for the price of 1.

Very cool. Wonder, how many collectors peeled paper labels off of handy oilers today, after reading this thread.

I'm just a silly old Texaco collector. I don't understand this thread. Was the can purchased as being a reproduction or ? Reread this several times and I guess I'm just slow. ; )

Hahaha Doug,
Darin and i thought it would have been a pegasus litho oiler under the wrapper or just a plain oiler with nothing due to gargoyle oilers being rare. I have only seen 3 of these oilers since I have started collecting.

Dan

Unreal Dan....great find.
Super nice addition to your collection.
Mike

Specialized collectors of Socony-Vacuum/Mobil items know that by the middle of WW2, the company was using glass bottles with silver, black, and red labels for products that usually would have been in a metal can. Upperlube, handy oil, stop-leak additives, Sovasuds cleaner, the Tavern home products line like furniture polish, many products can be found in the WW2 glass bottles due to the shortage of metals.

I would have bet that the design underneath the label would have been the black, red, and white can with the Pegasus at the top as Dan posted above next to the Gargoyle can. My thoughts are that someone found a stock of the older Gargoyle cans and due to the fact that the can could be wrapped with the current design silver label, they were certainly usable for the purpose and filled. (Not to mention that due to the war effort nothing would have been wasted anyways.) The other thing that's odd is that in the early 1940's they were already using the black, red, and white design cans which also leads me to believe some old can stock was found and used for this application. Previous to Dan finding this can, I had never seen a silver wrapped oiler, so I was/am excited to add it to my collection as another variation. I have 2 extra oval Mobil oilers so the label will be reattached to a new home.

The different eras of the can and the wrap are what makes this find unique, to a specialized Mobil collector anyways as again I never would have expected the Gargoyle can to be under that wrapper.

Nice...buy some scratch off lottery tickets this week too.

Awesome find! It looks sweet and in great shape!

Great info and insight Darin!!!

Thats awesome

Cool find dooooood

for those who wondered..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/191417371028

NO...

What WAS under it Randy? A plain can?
On a side note, I hadn't ever seen that Wadhams oiler before until that seller sold those two. I watched the second one sell but wasn't willing to go that high on one.
Darin

plain can- was hoping for more, paper label saved & on can..