Made as a sample for the Eclipse cast iron stove company, which sent out a new catalog each year. This company touted the fact that you could heat the top burners of the stove without heating the entire oven, as most iron stoves did. Only heating the top burners meant the use of less fuel (wood or coal) and less unnecessary heating of the kitchen in the summer. We bought this sample cook stove in Delaware at a flea market many years ago, to be a companion to our Victorian house’s original iron cook stove. Our big fully-functioning Bartlett’s London Kitchener was made in 1888, and installed in our house on Tulpehocken Street when it was built, 1886-89. It uses either coal or wood as fuel. I was told that the iron stoves were painted with a black heatproof paint each year, to prevent rust. We have not done that, but it explains why there are so many layers of paint that the names were partially obscured until the previous owner chipped the paint away. And no, we have never used it, but the man who owned the house before us did!

– Linda Corsover

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more