Thank you both for your kind words and information. I can check with my local appliance repair store for an alternate element... but have my doubts about them providing it.
This is in a rental so I don't feel particularly beholden to authenticity, though I do love the appearance and would like to keep it as much as I can. We lost our oven thermostat in this range a few years ago and went with the universal replacement, hence the one knob is mismatched there on the right side, and I likely still have the original knob, but have conceded to the slow modernization process as a concession to being able to keep it in good order for years to come in the apartment. I'll just search for nichrome and see what turns up. I guess it will become apparent what parameters I should look for if I do a bit more research.
I have another range in a different apartment that sadly is missing its bake element as well as the tray that suspended it, in the small warming oven on the left side. (picture below) The brand name for that one is less common... a Monarch. Now that I know Someone might be found to replace the oven element with a more modern upgrade, I'll be more active in searching for it.
I was so sad when the independent appliance repair shop with the older owner in Pullman Washington, a close neighboring town to Moscow Idaho where I'm at, burned down a couple years ago. The owner just decided to go out of business at that point, but he would have been the perfect person to go to... he always had what I needed. I really miss the security of his wonderful supply of old stock, as he had the exact ceramic socket for that oven in the range above when it snapped in half one day about 6 years ago. Finding an older appliance store well stocked is so dear... Would it be ok to ask who your appliance store is that provided you with the alternate modern element? In worst case scenario I might call them and work long distance.
I learned on this Monarch range pictured below, something I would not have thought about. We have a Real avid Chef in the apartment where this big range is, and one day a couple months ago, he chucked a pan into the larger oven on the right side, and inadvertently managed to get it close enough during the insertion process that his pan bridged between two of the hot nichrome broil elements. His wife told me he let out a yelp, and he apparently really got quite badly shocked... something no one else has ever done with that range in all my years of owning this house... maybe 20 years now. I guess I'll have to warn future residents there not to make that mistake, the nichrome elements are conductive through a metal pan. I didn't even know this was possible till it happened. .
