2016Antiques - Set

90c-Antique Gas-Pressure Iron
Gas-pressure irons were manufactured as early as 1900 by Enterprise Tool & Metal works in Chicago and were around through at least the 1970’s before electric-powered steam irons were a more affordable, safer alternative. Some iron manufacturers made the mistake of adding a wood handle, which would get hot easily and possibly catch fire. Coleman Irons continued to improve the iron and upgraded the gas-pressure iron, and it became an instant success. Coleman made it in several colours other than the standard “cool blue” over the course of the iron’s 20 year lifespan (1929-1948).

130c-Antique Coffee Grinder
Coffee grinders are also called “coffee mills” although there is a difference in the way each grinds the coffee. Large floor-standing or counter-model coffee mills were used in the nineteenth-century country store.
Small home mills were first made about 1894. They lost favour by the 1930’s. The one-wheel store model was patented 1870 and the two-wheel model was made in 1873. The renewed interest in fresh-ground coffee has produced many electric mills, hand mills and grinders.
Reproductions of the old styles are still being made.

205c-Antique Oil Lamp
An oil lamp is an object used to produce light continuously for a period of time using an oil-based fuel source. The use of oil lamps began thousands of years ago and continues to this day, although not commonly anymore.

Oil lamps are a form of lighting, and were used as an alternative to candles before the use of electric lights. Starting in 1780 the Argand lamp quickly replaced other oil lamps still in their basic ancient form. These in turn were replaced by the kerosene lamp in about 1850. In small towns and rural areas the latter continued in use well into the 20th century, until such areas were finally electrified and light bulbs could be used.
Most modern lamps (such as fuelled) have been replaced by gas-based or petroleum-based fuels to operate when emergency non-electric light is required. As such, oil lamps of today are primarily used for the particular ambience they produce.

250c-Antique Phonograph
The phonograph is a device introduced in 1877 for the mechanical recording and reproduction of sound. In its later forms it is also called a gramophone (as a trademark since ca. 1900).
The phonograph was invented by Thomas Edison. Edison’s phonograph was the first to be able to reproduce the recorded sound.

325c-Antique Sewing Machine
Elias Howe, patented the lock-stitch sewing machine in the United States in 1846.
Besides Singer and Howe, other sewing-machine manufacturers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries included Wheeler & Wilson, which won awards in the 1860s for its buttonhole machines, and was especially well known for its hemmers. These treadle machines ranged from the stripped down Old Style Hemmer mounted on a plain walnut surface to silver plated and mother-of-pearl machines, whose legs and working components were hidden behind fancy wooden cabinetry, befitting their status as symbols of wealth.