Dutch-o-rama, advertising in the Netherlands

[foraloysius]

Siwa was one of the Dutch manufacturers. They made automatic frontloaders later, well into the seventies IIRC. Not sure if they made them all themselves, perhaps the later models were relabeled. This one however is an authentic Siwa, made in the NL. The Siwa Grandluxe has a rinse system, I don't see anything in the ad though how that would work. 598 guilders wasn't bad. But a heater was 50 guilders extra and an extra lid 35. This is an agitator machine. A pulsator machine was 100 guilders less. Under the picture of the agitator it says: With the safe forward and backward laundry mover. According to this ad (from 1960) the price was low because it was totally Dutch made, so no high import taxes.

 

[foraloysius]

Here's a 1963 Siwa ad with a more modern looking twintub. "Everything you have to know about twintubs". It mentions the safe agitator again and a handy control panel. It has a rinse-spin system and the capacity of the washtub and the spindryer are both 3 kg. The push buttons remind me a bit of the Candy Bimatic.

 

[toploader55]

Thanks Louis for your time and translating.

Really cool stuff.

 

[foraloysius]

I came across a lot of ads for the AEG Agilux. When I look at all the ads, I get the impression Agitators were preferred over Pulsators. This ad is from 1961.

"Experienced housewives say: A stainless steel tub is the most important requirement. Washing is done at the left, rinsing and spinning at the right".

The price with heater and autorinse is 995 guilders. Without autorinse 895. It was an expensive piece of washing equipment.

The machine you see on the left is the Agilux S with the autorinse feature. On the right the Agilux without that feature.

 

[foraloysius]

This ad is also from 1961. It shows the automatic Turnamat next to the semi-automatic Agilux.

Turnamat: 1398.-
Agilux: 895.-
Agilux S: 995.-

 

[foraloysius]

This company is bringing the prices down in 1962. You can have a Turnamat for just a bit more than the price of an Agilux a year before. Automatic washing gets affordable for the middle class. The Lavamat (a fully automatic frontloader) is way more expensive than the Turnamat.

 

[turquoisedude]

These ads are great, Louis!  Thank you so much for posting them.  It's wild to see how popular machines like the Bendix and early Westinghouse were overseas.  I'm sure that even in the 'fifties, if my family were still in Latvia, they'd have been using a scrub board and hand-cranked wringer!!  

 

[joeekaitis]

Oh, and I've always been a Norelco man . . .

 

 Got a few Philishave ads?

 

Seems every Christmas is rumored to be the last Christmas for the Norelco brand in the USA ever since Philishave became Philips in the rest of the world.  For now it's PHILIPS NORELCO in all-caps with NORELCO set in larger type on the shavers.  Gotta hang onto it, apparently.  Remember how well that whole metric system conversion thing went back in the 1970s and '80s.

 

And, hello, what's this at norelco.ca?

[this post was last edited: 12/13/2017-15:32]

Norelco Cranes – Surrey BC Canada North America Manufacturer

norelco.ca

 

[joeekaitis]

Subaru is headed in the same direction as DAF . . .

 

 The long-term goal is to make the Lineartronic CVT standard on all Subarus sold in the USA except the BRZ rear-wheel drive sports car and the Impreza-based WRX sedans.

 

And thanks for the DAF!

 

[petek]

Norelco ca doesn't appear to have anything to do with Philips. It's a crane building company in Canada. The Norelco name was never used in Canada by Philips,, everything was Philips, ,the razors were Philishave, not Norelco's as in the US.. Perhaps it had something to do with the Norelco name already being used by someone else,, for example that crane company. Interestintly, up until maybe the 80s, many Hamilton Beach appliances were badged as Philips in Canada.

 

[foraloysius]

Here's the background of the Norelco name. Philips never intended to use the Norelco name in Canada I think.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norelco

 

[rolls_rapide]

I'm loving those old adverts too!

Regarding the twintubs being less popular in the Netherlands... when that happened the manufacturers probably said: "I know - Lets dump them on the Brits!"

And we got deluged by 'em! Lol

Good stuff.

 

[foraloysius]

"Lets dump them on the Brits!"

LOL!

Actually you got the Norfrost ofcourse, a relabeled Velo and you got Stokvis.

 

[foraloysius]

Talk about Stokvis. Stokvis was a trade company founded in 1849. Their trade was a wide variety of products. For their white goods they bought their products from Van der Heem & Bloemsma, a company that made radio's, tv's and appliances. AFAIK Stokvis never made such products themselves. In the UK these products were sold under the Stokvis name. In the NL they were sold as Erres, after the initials of the founder R.S. Stokvis. In 1966 Philips bought up the electrical Van der Heem & Bloemsma, from that year of Erres were relabeled Philips products. Van der Heem & Bloemsma focused on beauty products from then on, which were sold under the Indola label.

This is an ad from 1961. It shows a wringer washer, a spin dryer and a twintub and hand wringers. Erres never made an electric wringer AFAIK. In my early youth most people who had a single tub or wringer washer also had a spin dryer.

The twintub is not a TOL model, that one had four dials on the front.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Thanks. It brings a degree of clarity to those strange, obscure foreign brands, which only ever seemed to crop up in Which? and Ideal Home Magazine.

The funny thing is, the 'Norfrost' brand name now appears to be used by Ebac for their freezers.

It's a pity that the Norfrost twintub isn't available, it looks quite a usable machine.

http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVNyfCydMy8

 

[joeekaitis]

Wonderful ads . . .

. . . and so much wonderful info.

 

[vacbear58]

Stokvis

I believe this is a Stokvis machine in a Fairy Snow ad.

The dialogue is apalling - the background appliances are Canadian (Moffat) and the washing machine is Dutch!

 

[mrboilwash]

Louis, you say GE Toploaders were popular in the Netherlands.
Did you actually have fully automatic toploaders on the market ?
I always assumed that we only had a couple of wringer washers with agitators and maybe the odd wash-rinse only automatic, but I thought there was never a fully automatic (wash-rinse-spin) agitator toploader in Germany. So I`m quite surprised to learn our neighbors in the Netherlands had these. The cheaper pulsator type was the most widespread system here before tumble washers took over.

Also interesting to see you had the Bendix and Westinghouse washers apparently unaltered. I seem to remember from old ads on the German washer forum we had those too, but I think the ads said they were modified to suit German houswifes` expectations. Not sure if they offered boilwashes or a dual wash action or both to suit those expectations. My memory is blurry and unfortunately the washer forum with the daily picture doesn`t exist anymore. Obviously they weren`t a huge success and vanished soon after introduction from the market.

 

[foraloysius]

Yes, Stefan, we had all kind of American washing machines on the market. I said rather popular, because they were still very pricy after all. But not so that only the very wealthy could afford them. Here's a thread about a washer that our neighbours had.

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?69470

He was a busdriver and she was a housewife. They didn't have a handmixer, a fridge or a car, but they invested in an automatic washer before anything else, probably because they had 7 children.

I'm not sure if the Bendix or Westinghouse weren't unaltered. After all, the Westinghouse in Reply #7 was offered with an optional heater.

Here's another Bendix, advertised in 1953. "You only have to give three orders by adjusting the three dials, quantity and time depending on the type of laundry".

 

[foraloysius]

Yes Alistair, that looks indeed like a Stokvis. So much for a "British" washing machine!