Cuyler,  Your stove sounds absolutely beautiful.  Ours is a very plain 1939
Home Comfort, bought new by Merrill's grandparents.  I have the invoice
from when they bought it.  It is a very heavy old thing which has seen much
hard use and has some problems.  I need to find someone who has parts
and/or can repair it but it is useable.  It has not been cold enough here
to need to heat that room very much but when it is it really makes a big
difference in the temp of the kitchen.  Ruth

Happy New Year!!!!!!



At 11:30 AM -0800 12/26/06, Cuyler Page wrote:

>As to wood stoves, I have a 1932 stove made in Ontario that is a beautiful
>model of a moment in the era of transition from traditional to modern
>design.   It is a proper wood stove with many little extras obviously
>designed by someone who has used them in real life, things like handy little
>pull-out rods here and there to hang mittens on or to dry dish cloths, a
>handy
>row of cast iron hooks built-in on the back side of the warming oven for
>hanging towels or coats, and removable interior sides and floor of the oven
>to allow easy cleaning, a removable chrome rail all across the front that
>never gets hot to the touch because of the way it is fastened to the body of
>the stove like a lid lifter.   The best innovation is a cast iron base
>instead of legs to hold up
>the stove, with an large but hidden opening in the back side to allow the
>cat to get in and enjoy the warm cozy space below the oven.  Because there
>are no legs, it is easy to sweep or vacuum the floor all around the stove.
>The entire
>stove design is based on elegant cantilevering.   The cast iron base is
>ovoid, about 20" across at the floor, swooping up in a graceful curve to
>about 14" diameter at the underside of the oven.   The stove body  itself is
>a conventional shape with firebox on the left, but the unique ash grates are
>three
>beautiful interlocking spirals.   The water well cantilevers off to the
>right with a
>finely designed support bracket that looks like it came right off a French
>curve.   Best of all, the warming oven is (visually) delicately balanced on
>the back wall of the stove, cantilevering, but not equally, both forward and
>back with similar elegant curved cast iron support brackets.   The entire
>design is of smooth
>lines, not the old Victorian gingerbread style, but reflecting the early
>1930's transition to clean lines and aerodynamic shaping of everything from
>car fenders to refrigerators.   It actually looks a bit more Art Deco with
>its clean yellow enamel and black enamel pin stripe line work around the
>doors.
>
>The dealer I bought it from said he had been restoring and selling stoves
>for decades and had never seen anything like this one.   However it was made
>by Elmira Stove Works in Ontario, a well known company.   Every time I look
>at it I see an architectural mind at work in the design.   It is stunningly
>well balanced and seems to float effortlessly in the air.
>
>cp in bc
>Happy Boxing Day to y'awl
-- 
Ruth Barton
[log in to unmask]
Dummerston, VT

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