\n
A less detailed illustration, this ad states that the Dolly\u2019s Favorite is the \u201csmallest range in the world that cooks and bakes perfectly.\u201d As a fun twist, the bottom half advertises that there are ranges for mom, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Here it is in the flesh. This range is deceptively large having just looked at a bunch of smaller toys. This is 18 3\/4\u2033 wide and 11\u2033 deep. With the high shelf it stands just over 3\u2032 tall. You can see from the picture it still neatly fits within the discussed patents but this is a fully functional stove that \u201cwill cook and bake everything that mother\u2019s big stove will cook.\u201d You\u2019ll also notice that the stoves pictured in the ads don\u2019t quite match this one. And by \u201cdon\u2019t quite\u201d I mean \u201cdon\u2019t at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Here you can see a damper control is missing but it\u2019s clearly marked Dolly\u2019s Favorite as well as by the manufacturer. This is a fun one that\u2019s definitely a toy, but also a completely functional unit. This and above photo courtesy of Kerri Anderson.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Here is another really handsome little stove that\u2019s actually quite a bit larger than many we see. Those two pieces of cookware on top are probably about 5\u2033 diameter so it\u2019s a pretty decent size.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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This is the same model but a different example. Two of the little doors are open. This one is an example of a domestic trainer range.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Here you can see that door that you\u2019d expect to open to the firebox actually opens to\u2026basically nothing. Theres a nice and fairly ornate oven rack in there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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From this angle we see a good amount of the fine details. This one is a single piece for the body and legs, and despite the ornamentation it was made with minimal parts because parts and children get frustrating and complicated pretty quickly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nOk so now that I\u2019ve thoroughly depressed you about the likelihood of your wee stove being a salesman\u2019s sample and not a toy, let\u2019s move on to the next section: Salesman\u2019s Samples.<\/p>\n
They do exist. Sort of. They\u2019re not the type of thing that you\u2019d just get for free like when you\u2019re walking through the super market and someone is whipping up a hot plate of sausage and peppers so you can sample something. These were more\u2026demonstration models. They were called samples at the time, and so we call them samples here. But sample nowadays conjures up images of free goodies and swag, when these were used to demonstrate design and, more importantly, functionality.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s also complicated. There are articles that describe perfect replica miniature toy ranges, and we\u2019ll get a look at one momentarily. I think these sort of straddled the toy\/sample boundary and it brings something to mind that I haven\u2019t seen brought up before: Toys aren\u2019t just for children.<\/p>\n
Think about it. How many fully adult model enthusiasts are there? You\u2019ve got your toy cars, your model kits for children, and then more advanced model kits which you\u2019re most likely not going to be able to complete with the dexterity and patience of a 12 year old. In my opinion there is an added level of toy that\u2019s a tier above what we\u2019ve discussed so far. We can consider them scale models. They\u2019re one part toy, one part calling card. You\u2019d find them at trade fairs or maybe hardware stores on display, but probably not be picking one up for your kid. You could get it for your kid, sure. But there\u2019s a lot of appeal to \u201cthe kid in you\u201d when looking at stuff like this.<\/p>\n
\n
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This is another article which is just begging for some more information. At the end it states that the Michigan Stove Company is now offering miniatures of their Garland Steel range\u2013\u201ccomplete in detail.\u201d This is pretty early at 1894, but there was a lot going on earlier than this, and no reason to think similar practices weren\u2019t going on for iron stoves as well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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Another excerpt, this time from 1895 with instruction from the Michigan Stove Company on how to set up a window display to show a toy stove. This one ends with the intention of influencing parents to look into the full sized offerings. It doesn\u2019t go on to specify the material of the stove, which is a bit frustrating but also may simply be because they had multiple stoves and multiple miniatures.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nThese toys are a different breed. Fully functional, highly ornate and complete to the smallest details, yet also considerably smaller than domestic training ranges. Honestly they\u2019re right around the same size of the Wing\u2019s or Bailey\u2019s patent stoves and, except for the fact that they\u2019re exact copies of patented stoves and also a whole lot more parts, they could be mistaken for one of the two at first glance. On closer inspection, some of the very fine details and functionality are different or omitted.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re sort of on par with true samples, and on some level they\u2019d play that role. But nobody was showing up to your house with one to get you to buy it. Rather, the manufacturers were putting an incredible and painstaking level of care into the production of these things, with the hopes that on seeing the skill of production and the name of the firm who made it, you\u2019d keep them in mind when it was time to upgrade or replace your current stove.<\/p>\n
\n
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This piece here was made by Spicers & Peckham. It is incredible in detail and a cut above other toys I\u2019ve seen. The construction is exact. There are also examples marked Model Art which are identical except for the name. They are perfect miniature reproductions of the full sized Model Art ranges. So\u2026if they were a \u201csample,\u201d why would they sometimes be named for a stove that doesn\u2019t exist?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Missing the shelves in the oven, you can see that the oven wall is not the same as the outside wall. This is because if you fired this teeny thing up, the air would circulate through the cavity around the oven, heating it evenly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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From the side, you have the open broiler damper control and the ash door. Again, fully functional. A toy for a child doesn\u2019t need such a silly level of detail, but this model is also leaving out some bits and fudging others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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From up top, you can see the grate inside. You could easily drop some fuel in there and light this. And then the stove eye covers. Look at the incredible detail. They\u2019re perfect reproductions and not just reminiscent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Here you can see the body lifts off the base. You can also see that the base and legs are all separate pieces affixed with bolts. That\u2019s also a very well-made but teeny stove pipe. That little guy behind is is a very nice Orr & Painter toy stove that also straddles the line between toy and sample, but the Dainty name and single piece body makes it pretty clear this is on the toy-er end of things. It\u2019s worth noting that there are period articles describing perfectly detailed miniature toys.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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No debate where this one came from. But is it a toy or a sample? To me this is a toy. This mark on the back pushes it to novelty level. Maybe you\u2019d pick them up at trade shows, and likely some were displayed at hardware stores that were dealers of Spicers & Peckham. They\u2019d be an excellent advertiser with this level of detail, but they never sold a \u201cTarbox\u201d stove, and this miniature is otherwise identical to the Model Art miniature, which was an actual stove and this is a copy of it. I don\u2019t know why they\u2019d have a toy with a different name, but Tarbox is a common surname in the area, so it may be somehow tied to a member of the firm.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nThese were a different caliber of craftsmanship than any of the toys shown above, including the Dolly\u2019s Favorite. They were meticulously crafted with some details that are so impressive they LOOK frustrating just thinking about the casting. They had functional damper controls, grates, and every detail down to the notches in the stove eye covers were included. But when they\u2019re toys, sometimes things aren\u2019t there even when most of it is. The Tarbox\/Model Art is missing a damper control entirely, and the front damper control is a larger bit that works and demonstrates but doesn\u2019t look the same.<\/p>\n
The eye covers one the left lift off to reveal the fire box with grates that fall down in to an ash pan, which has an access point through the ash door but is NOT accessible through the oven. The eye covers on the right lift off to reveal the top of the oven, which is not open but rather there is a cavity around it which allows air from the fire box to circulate around the body of the oven itself and heat it evenly.<\/p>\n
Dampers open and close and are fully functional, broiler dampers included. The tiny stove pipe is an incredibly accurate and, surprise, fully functional sheet metal stove pipe which must have been painstaking to replicate in such miniature. All panels with doors have doors that are functional, with the exact functionality they have in full scale. Lastly, the body of the stove lifts out of the base, and the base itself can be disassembled into the front and back pieces as well as the four legs. <\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know how many of you all have kids. But who here would buy their kid a toy that had 6,502 parts? Even the functional toy stoves or \u201cdomestic trainers\u201d didn\u2019t get this intricate. The castings were ornamental, but not to this extent. But they\u2019re also toy sized, not the scaled up toy size of domestic training stoves.<\/p>\n
As I said above, at first glance this seems like a sample. But in the minutia lies the answer. A sample wouldn\u2019t omit or alter a damper for ease of construction. And the calling card on the back is just tacky for something as elaborate as a sample. They could do the castings as finely as they wanted, but they wanted the big text as an advertisement. And you don\u2019t need explicit advertisement when a salesman is giving you a demonstration.<\/p>\n
As for the time period of these, I have a pretty high degree of confidence that these weren\u2019t actually produced by Spicers & Peckham when they were Spicers & Peckham. In the 1880s, Charles Peckham retired and they became the Spicer Stove Company. In 1900, they were bought out by the Barstow Stove Company under the presidency of John Palmer Barstow.<\/p>\n
John Palmer grew up in the spoils of his family\u2019s business, and went to Brown University to study business. He wasn\u2019t a nitty gritty foundry worker like his father or grandfather before him, but he was a fantastically brilliant businessman. It\u2019s in this time period of the Barstow Stove Company that you see numerous acquisitions and intricate\/elaborate advertising pieces. They also reverted back to the Spicers & Peckham name due to brand recognition. And for the most part, it seems like Barstow allowed pretty broad autonomy to their previous competitor.<\/p>\n
I firmly believe these pieces to have been produced by Spicers & Peckham under the ownership of the Barstow Stove Company. Similarly there are Richmond Stove Company advertisers produced by the Barstow Stove Company in the same time period. John Palmer Barstow consolidated related or competitive local firms with strong brand recognition and a history of integrity and then sort of let them continue to do their own thing. But he worked hard to stand apart from the competition in his advertising. These stoves are a reflection of that.<\/p>\n
The Spicers & Peckham toys are fairly common as far as this stuff goes. You might not see them everyday like you do the more common toys, but they do come around. I\u2019m pretty confident examples of these and others like it from competing brands were produced by the foundries themselves, and not some outside toy or hardware manufacturer (like the Bay State above). <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve yet to dig up the entirety of the application of these things, but there are a few obvious applications that come to mind. The first is that hardware stores in smaller, possibly rural regions wouldn\u2019t be the largest stores or sales rooms, but major manufacturers would have authorized dealers all over. These hole in the wall shops wouldn\u2019t have room for 48 stoves representing the most prominent manufacturers\u2019 most popular lines. No\u2026they\u2019d have a few full size models and likely little demo models that would be cased up for safe keeping or possibly on display at a sales counter. A customer would come up and say they were looking for a stove or range, and the salesman would ask some question and then break out some of the more popular models that meet the customers\u2019 needs.<\/p>\n
\n
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From volume 25, page 17 of the 1895 Stoves and Hardware Reporter. This plainly states that a traveling salesman for a \u201cSt. Louis stove house\u201d told a merchant he\u2019d have better luck selling stoves if he kept his sample in better order. This is tantalizing, but it\u2019 could be a small, sample model of a stove. Or it could be\u2019s most likley a full size \u201csample\u201d for use in house. Stove-specific retailers would have sample rooms, similar to shopping for a stove today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The next reason could possibly be for trade fairs. These were commonplace and high quality advertising and demonstrations were common. With rows of model year products, a smaller model might be handy for demonstrations apart from the crowds. Possible, likely I think, but not exactly proven.<\/p>\n
Lastly, a local dealer, big city or not, could make a visit to a retailer or even be called to a home if the establishment were feeling generous. These traveling salesman would have a perfect range, in miniature, to demonstrate the functionality of stoves and fill orders from the demonstrations given. Not as good as a full sized sample, but it still did the trick.<\/p>\n
\n
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From the 1921 Nebraska Iron Monger, this is one of the few references I\u2019ve seen that are unambiguous in their references to miniature samples. This manufacturer had 12 women who were traveling salespeople for the firm, and each had their own sample for demonstrations. <\/p>\n<\/div>\nNow for the last piece of this puzzle. A confirmed sample. This one isn\u2019t a stove, it\u2019s a furnace. But it\u2019s also a very well known brand: Glenwood.<\/p>\n
\n
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Sitting on top of a full sized Glenwood, this is an amazing and unambiguous example of a salesman sample. It\u2019s missing the top piece which would have originally had the octopus-looking piping coming out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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Once again, beautiful functionality in the doors. See the holes in the back of the top? Those are cast, not drilled. Thinking of casting this gives me palpitations. And those knobs underneath where it says Weir Stove? Those turn the four rotating grates inside. That\u2019s right, each knob turns to rotating grates which are geared to turn together. This piece is astounding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
Removing the top you can see more intricacy in the design. But wait, it gets better.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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Fully removed and looking inward, you can see the ash compartment, which has a tiny shovel to demonstrate as well. At this point I should mention that we have full provenance on this piece.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
Here we see the four triangular rotating grates. I\u2019m turning those on the left and you can see they\u2019re oriented differently. This is all cast. This piece was in the Glenwood factory when it closed in July, 1949. On the clean out it was picked up by one individual, who then sold it to Brandon Pineo of the Antique Stove Hospital<\/a>. He was incredibly gracious in climbing atop a bunch of stuff to get this off a high shelf in the back of his showroom. The Spicers & Peckham, Orr & Painter, and Uncle Sam are all in his showroom and pictures are shared with his permission.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThis Glenwood furnace sample is incredible. It originally had a leather case which is present in some other examples of this same piece that has been found. While it would have been nice to have the case, what the other pieces do not have, is provenance. This is a sample that was in the Glenwood building, it has changed hands twice since being with Glenwood and is now owned by one of the most reputable sources of information on antique stoves in the United States, if not the entire world.<\/p>\n
We have a whole mess of examples of different stoves, from cheesy stove shaped toy, to really attractive but functionally fairly useless toy, to domestic training \u201ctoy\u201d stoves, and finally, to the sample stove. Each obvious toy shares a pretty basic design, most of which are fairly similar to one another. They have minimal moving or removable parts\u2013only those that you\u2019d actually regularly interact with and that would probably frustrate a kid if these features weren\u2019t present. The functional toys have grates, fireboxes, and shelves which are all useful, and some were specifically manufactured as domestic training stoves. <\/p>\n
Even then, things are somewhat minimal. Oftentimes they are on solid piece with no removable legs. They are designed to be something a parent would want a child to have.<\/p>\n
This is sort of an \u201cif you\u2019ve seen one, you\u2019ve seen \u2019em all\u201d situation. Even the more unique pieces like the Bay State toy stove I showed above is similar in that it\u2019s one piece with minimal interactivity\u2013the minimal interactivity required to make it fun while also allowing it to be pretty easy to produce.<\/p>\n
Above these are the highly ornate miniature reproductions of actual stoves. These are \u201ccalling cards\u201d and effective advertising pieces. But some functionality or design is slightly compromised and oftentimes the foundry is displayed in such prominence that it\u2019s clearly trying to get your attention to the brand. Not a sample because a salesman doesn\u2019t need that kind of advertising, but they\u2019re more of an advertising replica model that either a toy or a sample. Models, being toys, are still toys.<\/p>\n
Then, you get to the samples. There is nothing spared here. Even components nobody but someone servicing the unit would see. And these don\u2019t just look like the components, they\u2019re exact replicas manufactured in the exact same way. There is absolutely no reason for a rotating grate to be geared to rotate in tandem with its counterpart when the knob outside is turned. That\u2019s the level of detail we see in samples and it is nothing close to what we see in even the most extravagant of toys.<\/p>\n
The problem with identifying legitimate samples often comes down to provenance. Nobody cared about this stuff until \u201cwe\u201d decided it was cool. Antiques enthusiasts are a knowledgable bunch but there hasn\u2019t been a whole lot of academic research on this stuff. That\u2019s not to knock anyone, it\u2019s just that not a whole heap of people have approached this from a \u201cwhat information can I find, compile, distill, and share with the world on this\u201d perspective. The existence of samples is debated by some of the more seasoned collectors in the hobby. And that almost every single one is a toy is a statement fervently argued against by at least 80% of people encountered.<\/p>\n
Again, this is \u201cfine\u201d and nothing to be mad at anyone about. It just speaks to the utter dearth of legitimate research done by those who are skilled in doing it AND willing to actually share their work. I hope\u2013I really do\u2013that what little work I have done to contribute to the knowledge base underpinning this hobby is enough to inspire some more people to do the same.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My brother has an impressive collection of baseball cards. Now, I don\u2019t mean that he has three shoe boxes under his bed with maybe 4 dozen bundles of cards with a rubber band around them. I mean impressive. He started collecting baseball cards in the 1980s, just like every other boy born in the 1980s. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11767],"tags":[3735,1184,32879,13861,25352,3296,661],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-58307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anthropology","tag-anthropology","tag-everyday","tag-salesmans","tag-sample","tag-stove","tag-tiny","tag-toy"],"yoast_head":"\n
How to Tell if Your Tiny Stove is a Toy or a \u201cSalesman\u2019s Sample\u201d \u2013 Everyday Anthropology - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=58307\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Tell if Your Tiny Stove is a Toy or a \u201cSalesman\u2019s Sample\u201d \u2013 Everyday Anthropology - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My brother has an impressive collection of baseball cards. Now, I don\u2019t mean that he has three shoe boxes under his bed with maybe 4 dozen bundles of cards with a rubber band around them. I mean impressive. He started collecting baseball cards in the 1980s, just like every other boy born in the 1980s. 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Som2ny Network","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=58307","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to Tell if Your Tiny Stove is a Toy or a \u201cSalesman\u2019s Sample\u201d \u2013 Everyday Anthropology - Som2ny Network","og_description":"My brother has an impressive collection of baseball cards. Now, I don\u2019t mean that he has three shoe boxes under his bed with maybe 4 dozen bundles of cards with a rubber band around them. I mean impressive. He started collecting baseball cards in the 1980s, just like every other boy born in the 1980s. 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