Thursday, 11 May 2023

For Leaflets, Patents, Adverts, Photos of my Collection, go to my Flickr page

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stellabanana/?

And click on Albums!

To the contributors of this Blog: THANK YOU!

Dear Readers,

Creating this Blog is dream come true.

Believe me, i wouldn't have, in my wildest dreams, thought to ever find the relatives of the manufacturers i cherish, let alone meeting some of them. Nor to find so many artifacts, articles, magazines, leaflets, patents, archives... and machines. Nor would i have thought i would meet charismatic people out there that i now treasure to be my friends.

I remember very well the day i got told, by someone wiser than me: "I know the answer, but i won't tell you", to which my wife added: "me too". This "smart" remark led to the personal motto of this Blog nearly 2 years ago: I didn't know a thing and was well prepared to tell it to the world.

My passion for these manufacturers caused many many sleepless nights. Retrospectively, it would be dishonest not to admit that both my interest, my eager and ever growing ability to find information exceed what some might say is the norm. In my defence: Not in a lifetime was i to think there was so much to be found on the subject. It has been a treat, a gift of life: being able to write the Blog one would have wished to find right at the start, that's plain luxury, an amateur's dream.

All things considered though, I am convinced anyone - with a minimum of interest - could have done this research. This is not false modesty. It is so obvious to me that no reliable information was to be found back then, because nobody tried and/or cared. If i can make an advise here to people who wish to research the history of the coffee machine they collect, just dare ask and never look back! There is always a way. It can be done: i am the living proof. You will never regret it. Probably the biggest challenge i have faced was to learn to ignore the insults of a few persons who think they own the monopoly on what they call the "truth". No worries though: The highest you climb the mountain, the less you'll hear the goats baa in the valley.

I take this occasion today to thank all the cooperative, patient, kind and willing families - Delle Vedove, Sassoon, Simon, Stern, Robbiati & Tarditi -, open-hearted friends, passionate collectors (If i can name three: the legendary Lucio Del Piccolo, the enthusiast Monsieur "A", and reputable Sébastien Delprat), interested local journalists, conscientious museum employees, meticulous patent officers, precise commerce chamber employees, helpful mayors, professional librarians and motivated taxi-drivers for their time and altruism... and all the online auction websites users who, realising my fascination in their items, sent me extra information, a scan, a photo... all little pieces of information without which i couldn't have quenched my thirst for knowledge, fuelled my curiosity. I am very well aware that the Blog would not have been what it is without every single of the individuals involved.

Love, Peace, Harmony,
& be curious!!!

Sincerely,

Mik "Knatterton" Janvier

35.10.73
VI.7I.W3

EVER TRIED,
EVER FAILED,
NO MATTER,
TRY AGAIN,
FAIL AGAIN,
FAIL BETTER.

(Samuel Beckett)

It is better to fail in originality,

than to succeed in imitation.

(Herman Melville)

Coffee Descaler "Rapid" - Yankee Polish, Lüth & Co. K.G. - A. Axelrath

Yet to be discovered... The Kesselsteinreiniger "Rapid"...

Yet, it existed...

... as this on this leaflet:

... or on this Archive picture:

Printed with a Stella Model 402E.

I have seen a - maybe commercial - suitcase of Yankee Polish lately.

The Descaler was there but with another 'random' print as see here:

Unfortunately, not much to be found on the business Yankee Polish itself...

The future - or someone with more information - will tell.

Souvenir was a telephone - 3 Octobre 1958 - Atomic espresso coffee machine

Monday, 8 May 2023

Josef Stein uit Wenen - 21 March 1953 - Atomic Expresso koffiemachine

I was looking for information about Henk Van der Voet N.V. who was selling Model Lucculus and Model 402E in the Netherlands...

I did not get disappointed.

What i found is someone going by the name of JOZEF STEIN (aka Desider Josef STERN) from Vienna, "LAUNCHING A NEW ELECTRIC COFFEE POT" that prepared "MOCCA" in "10 to 12 MINUTES"!!!

21 March 1953

"Are there new dresses, better radios, nicer leather goods, nice glassware? In Ans, who is about to get married, thinks that Joop should not look enough at those machines and engines, after all, it is based a lot on your good sheets and blankets on your bedsteads! So are he many questions and demands, which he rises by the thousands, the Every year again come to Utrecht, louder and just to look Well, we didn't cook it, but they were all cooked and our daughters have landed long as the wonderful products of many, sometimes making unexpected discoveries, starting with Jozef Stein from Vienna, who is launching a new electric coffee pot that allows you to pour the most delicious cups of mocca in 10 to 12 minutes. The Atomic Expresso coffee machine is a nice name ... because it has a ninety Dutch guilders for more than has. Austria still has white sea to pray, then coffee pots. The toy industry he boasts magnificent dolls, he stands glass blowing, to be jealous of and of course the Austrians have brought more tubas, flutes and trombones from the Bauernkapel.

The only Stella coffee machine i have seen on an online Marketplace in the Netherlands was a Model 105E.

Sunday, 7 May 2023

Semmelweis reflex

"The beginning of wisdom is the ability to call things by their proper name."

Espresso coffee maker, italian invention... now in progress to be manufactured in Birmingham?

Remember this?

Vittoria Brassfoundry producers of...

Oscar Colcaire and Arthur R. Wilson

I am sure everyone knows this patent registration of Giordano Robbiati in the US.

But do you know who Oscar Colcaire and Arthur R. Wilson were?

Me neither.

Let's have a look!

Where?

The army?

Lt.Col. Oscar Colcaire, Military Attaché in Switzerland in 1945

Americans, 300kms away from Milan, at the end of WW2.

(It reminds me of a certain Thomas E. Cara see here)

Let's look further into 'our' Oscar Colcaire.

If you read "Unique Adventures" written by Harry Gage Carpenter in 2016, you will stumble upon:

"Oscar Colcaire was a born salesman who spoke 6 languages..."

No comment.

Bankruptcy - Marion Duffy and Aubrey Sassoon - Anyone wo enlighten me on these finds?

Help needed...

I don't know what to make of these articles:

"It was quite a party..." - 18 September 1955

In 2011, i was in email-contact with a "member of Aubrey's family" and she informed me that "he did not have any children".

So to my surprise, i discover that Marion Gay Duffy had - at least - one son, prior to wedding Aubrey Sassoon: 13 year-old PETER DUFFY !!! (Born 1938)

The family lived at "48, Albert Hall Mansions" (Planned by Driver and Rew), built in Queen Ann style in 1879, by Edinburgh-born architect Richard Norman Shaw. (more information here: https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/)

The connection with Scottland (See my Post of October 2011: here) is interesting: "... on holiday from Gordonstoun" - This private school is situated north of Elgin. (see link from 2011 above).

I guess that the mentionned "Duke of Edinburgh" who "was educated" there was Prince Philipp (the husband of Queen Elisabeth II, father of King Charles III).

Another information from this newspaper cut about Aubrey: "... cousin of millionnaire bachelor Sir Victor Sassoon".

For your Information, there is an exhibition in the Jewish Museum in London at this very moment:

https://thejewishmuseum.org/press/press-release/the-sassoons