59 GE Stove

[goatfarmer]

Mini GE stove?

in Philadelphia......

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Retro-E...6QQihZ020QQcategoryZ71251QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[appnut]

"Unrestored condition"? Then why the heck does the little oven door have a black front and the big oven on the right a white front?

 

[danemodsandy]

It Ain't Black

Hi Appnut:

There's a heck of a lighting problem on that stove's photos, I'm thinking. If you'll look very carefully at the photos, you'll find one taken from a right three-quarter view (it's the second thumbnail from the top in the left-hand column of thumbnails, you'll get a better look at that panel. What it is, is a chrome-finished accent panel matching the backguard. I know where one of these ranges is, but it's not for sale. I wonder if the chrome accent panel was the difference between Stratoliners and Liberators?

 

[danemodsandy]

Burner With a Brain

I'm also seeing a temp sensor on the left front burner of that eBay Stratoliner. That was a very upscale feature then; Stratos must have been very expensive.

 

[northwesty]

Stratoliner and Liberator

On my vintage the Liberator was the top of the line - double oven. The statoliner had only a single oven and storage on the other side. There might have been a plainer double oven BOL that I think I have seen.

I have the service manual for GE stoves, but a little older vintage 1932-1942. Names: "the Studio", "the Statesman", "The Master", "The Airliner", "The Page", "The Leader", "The Chancellor", "The Stratoliner", and the top of the line for that era, "The Imperial 60", which had the two ovens.

 

[danemodsandy]

AHA!

Brian:

NOW I geddit- the Liberator was nicer than the Strato. It sounds like it should be the other way 'round, doesn't it? The eBay auction for the Strato bears you out perfectly; that range has one set of oven controls, not two.

Thanks for clearing that up!

 

[frontaloadotmy]

But my gansky range has two Ovens

Maybe the stainless clad small door denotes storage only?

 

[danemodsandy]

That's Not It Either...

Nope- my mom's best friend has her GE with two ovens and a chrome panel on the door of the small oven...

Is a puzzlement.

 

[pulltostart]

Stainless

As best I can tell, the stainless panel(s) were a styling feature of the 1957 product line, along with their "straight-line styling." The top-of-the-line range (Liberator), refrigerator (bottom mount), washer and dryer all had a stainless panel on the front. On the refrigerator, it was the freezer front panel (drawer). On the dryer it was the portion of the front beneath the dryer door, with matching panel on the front of the washer. As far as I know it only lasted the one year.

Lawrence

 

[gansky1]

1957 Console Look Ranges

Liberator, Stratoliner, Mainliner, Speedster, Stewardess, and the Spacemaker 30" & 24" lines.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The panel on the 57 appliances was not stainless, but aluminum and so soft that it will dent in you look at it cross eyed. The 1961 TOL Spacemaker 18.8 refrig-freezer had a full emobssed aluminum panel on the freezer door, but it could be removed and the regular door panel underneath was the same color as the rest of the cabinet.

The double oven Liberator was named after the big bomber that helped win WWII. 2 ovens liberated the cook. When the self-cleaning ovens came along, GE plastered all kinds of trim on the oven doors for a while to show the feature. There was a year when there were partial panels of dark glass on both of the ovens' doors from behind the handles to maybe a third of the way down. Maybe it was a way to reduce contact with the hot door surface. This was before they figured out how to have a window in the door so maybe it was a way to take away the plain look of a TOL range without an oven window. Did you ever notice how few Frigidaire TOL 40" ranges were sold with a window in the door of the main oven? Maybe it was because of the wider master oven doors that Westinghouse and GE made windows in doors look great, but a Frigidaire range with the two equal size door fronts looks somehow unbalanced with a window on the right aide. The 30 inch Frigidaire ranges looked OK with a window in the wide door and most of the wall ovens, too.

Is that Mainline Philadelphia range light blue or turquoise?

 

[danemodsandy]

I'll second that on the trim panels- they are easy to dent. GE's TOL reefers had the panel in 1959 and 1960, too. We had a '59 that was the model below the TOL; it had the turn-around Spacemaker shelves and was otherwise identical to the TOL, but with a slightly smaller freezer drawer and no trim panel. The instruction manual showed the full line, including the TOL model and the incredible wall-mount cabinet reefers. I have friends in Houston with a 1960 TOL in pink, with the trim panel.

The turnaround shelves weren't really as useful as the brochures and ads made them look; human nature is such that one leaves them in place and rummages around exactly as in every other refrigerator. You COULD swivel them out, but you don't.

Too bad that GE backed off on its trim levels in the 1960s. I think a Liberator with the trim panels AND P-7 self-cleaning would be one very handsome, very useful, very desirable range.

 

[northwesty]

Here is a 1952 Stratoliner that is just on the local Craigslist here. I have to comment that everybody is aware of these $3000 - $5000 restored range claims (I've seen the web page myself) and it sure is inflating the asking prices. Well, this fellow is only asking $350, not $1000 or so.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/clt/266761170.html

 

[danemodsandy]

Interesting how that's so similar to Brian's '48 with a little more glitz on the backguard. They weren't going crazy with the frequent restylings yet, and GE was better about that than some other companies.