The Historic District

I noticed a fair number of antique cook and wood/coal stoves had these names that were like wishful thinking. Here are a few I've noticed recently:

"Cosy Home"



was manufactured by "Happy Thoughts". Really !





"Cinderella" stove seems a little grim for the Cinderella who is still stuck tending the stove:

Too funny! Good finds! I've never noticed that but now I'm going to have to keep my eyes open.

I mean how did stoves get to be these plain white things after all this grotesquerie and household fantasy ? The handles on the "Household Honest"stove look like snake heads to me. And who would want to open Pandora's stove to put more wood in ? Not me !

We have our "Country Home" stove, and we live in a city.

Some of the names do seem wishful thinking or enforced positivity for an ideal home environment.

The Cinderella, Pandora and Old Timer seem more like wry jokes of the makers. I suppose they quipped at the time that Ella wouldn't be always dusted with cinders if she had such a fine stove instead of a stone hearth.

makers have all lost their creativity when it comes to industrial design. In days gone by most things had some character.. I collect old radios and suddenly realized it isn't' the radios I even care about, but rather, they are all examples of industrial art and so it's more like having an art deco collection than anything They will remain as such even if AM radio disappears. I guess that means that what motivates us to buy has changed. I find it really surprising that cars have so little uniqueness. 90% just look like jelly beans with wheels and yet the ads seem to promote individual styling. tooling costs dropped dramatically so they build each one ever so slightly different , but that's really just so the parts won't fit so they make more money. ads from the 50's toted features like auto transmissions and engine details and such. now automakers show a pretty lady and go "zoom zoom zoom" and that's the mentality.. But you can be sure the markets and how those dumbed down ads are well studied that means it is society that has changed perhaps? or how we value things? maybe we dont' care if our coffee makers are stylish so long as they work? the low costs of retooling and customization through CNC and fabbers and such should throw us into an era of more creativity, not less. maybe it's a pendulum that will swing the other way.
All the names of the stoves kind of tickle you. if you saw them in a store for the first time maybe that happy joke of a stove named Cinderella would make you smile and think of inviting friends over and their reactions to it. that gives you a warm fuzzy feeling and helps the sale.. something seems to have gotten lost though and you can't blame all the manufacturers. Its the consumers that changed it as they vote every time they buy something. I dont' understand why that is.
they seem to promote features. when i buy a coffee pot I dont' care if it has a clock. almost every one has a clock. I have plenty of clocks and they think I want to reset the clock on the coffee machine just because I moved it? I actually knew mine had one but it's a little LCD one and I can't even read it without reading glasses so I never set it anyway.. Oh it will make coffee at a specific time if I get it all ready and turn on with the clock, Almost all of them do that but who uses this function? its just over complication.. maybe younger people want yet another clock? I just want mine to make coffee. I actually recently had to photograph mine so I could enlarge the type so I could even figure out what half the buttons do and I have been using it for 5 years. it has all these buttons I never needed or even really had use for.
now try to find a stove without a clock, then try to find a microwave without a clock.. the guys that make the stoves know the microwave people arent' going to discontinue the clock.. I thinnk they also know than most people have both in their kitchen as well as a coffee pot... that's three on the counter already. not just my counter but most peoples counters. now we all have a TV set in our pocket as well and it has a clock too. even my thermostat has a clock. and still I'm running late

Ha! Love these!! Great finds!! Thanks for sharing

Here's an Excellent stove (no, it really is):

Willa wrote:Here's an Excellent stove (no, it really is):

excellent stove.JPG

It is brilliant as well as excellent!

what I always thought was cool was the use of the term "o-matic" it seemed to be a catch phrase of the 50's where everything was o-matic or something like that. maybe a-matic.. I always thought it would be neat to have an O-matic collection and you could likely find all kinds of neat items that reflect that phrase..

so in keeping with that theme how about the "maid o matic?"


http://lacecrazy.blogspot.ca/2015/03/a- ... matic.html

Funny. "Cinder-ella" and "Pandora('s...fire...Box)". A stove with a griddle could have the name "Hansel" (Hansel & Griddle, lol.). I didn't get much sleep last night.

That Excellent stove is gorgeous! I'm not sure if I would cook on it or give it a V-8 and go on a road trip.