Tricity Marquis Stove

[bellalaundry]

Here in Canada? Kingston, Ontario to be exact. This certainly looks very "British" in style to me. Too bad it seems to be missing it's racks.

Any information?

Guy

Log into Facebook

Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

www.facebook.com

 

[cfz2882]

British and also...

...looks quite"mid atlantic"to me . Somewhere ~ 1975-82,I recon. would be cool if it is 60hz so the clock will keep proper time

 

[bellalaundry]

Wait, what?

I just noticed that there is an "inside" glass door behind the main oven door. Was this unique to the brand or was it a trend in Europe?

Guy

 

[vacbear58]

Tricity Marquis Stove

Once again I see a posting and I think "How did that get there?" A few years ago there was a posting for a Tricity upright freezer in either USA or Canada. Over the years I have seen various UK manufactured items from this period or earlier that were sold in the US or Canada, usually department store chains, so it is possible that a special batch was ordered for sale in those markets.

This stove (or we would say cooker) is probably from around 1976/77 and is what you would call an apartment sized stove although it was a standard size from around 1960 to 1980 being 21 inches square - some models were deeper than 21 inches but that was mostly down to the depth of the control panel and had little more useable space. Around 1980 the "standard" size changed to be 24 inches square which it remains to this day.

This model is lower mid range market sector having only one oven with the broiler (grill) in the upper compartment with room to keep dishes and plates warm under the broiler pan. The four 7 inch elements are single circuit whereas better featured models were dual circuit where only the centre rings would be activated for smaller saucepans. Likewise the broiler has a single control for the whole thing rather than the ability to heat only half that upmarket models had. The elements for the oven were vertically arranged against the sides of the oven behind removeable "stay clean" oven panels, normally there would be one on the roof of the oven as well but the oven floor would always be vitreous enamel.

It was supplied with two racks for the oven and actually they both seem to be there. The broiler pan sat in the rail shown although it seems to be missing the grid for the pan and the (removeable) handle for the broiler pan.

Whilst some may through up their hands in horror at such a "small" stove in fact millions of such sized stoves worked perfectly well for families for decades. The first two of the attached photos are from 1974, the second two from 1978/79 with a styling update, I believe the model for sale was manufactured between these two dates.

 

[vacbear58]

Glass Oven Door

Inner glass oven doors were largely standard from the mid 1950s for UK manufactured electric ovens which had side opening doors, drop down doors either had windows in them or were made from toughened glass (black) which you could see through if the oven light was on. As far as I am aware most European manufactured ovens had drop down doors although there may have been the odd exception.

 

[petek]

Can't say as I've ever seen them sold at any stores here.

 

[jamiel]

On a slight tangent...was there ever a freezer plant in Scotland? Every now and again you see older small freezers here in the US with aluminum innards and I swear they have a "made in Scotland" label on them. Was it some weird conversion thing for one of the plants that made twin-tub washing machines that seemed to go bankrupt in the late 60s (Rolls...) Or, was it to do with the Iceland grocery store (frozen goods) chain? Inquiring minds....

 

[cfz2882]

I think so.

I found a '70s era small fridge(or freezer) that was made in Scotland

 

[vacbear58]

Scotland

You could well have seen freezers made in Scotland. It appears that in 1972 Scots company called Norfrost was established, manufacturing a couple of small size chest freezers. I think they might have had an upright freezer too but that was just their name put on an Italian made unit.

Even then I thought the project would be doomed as small (lets say about 25/26 inches square) chest freezers are, at best, a niche market here, and where there were a wide variety of upright freezers of similar dimension becoming widely available - a much more practical proposition for the British kitchen. As I recall it there was not a wide market penetration - they were going up against much larger and better known British names not to mention Italian and German competitors. But it is perfectly possible that they did make batches of freezers for other markets and voltages as, aside from the voltage of compressor, there would not be much difference between UK and North American models. It seems they did manufacture freezers under other names too.

A quick google search reveals that the Scottish company was in existence until 2013 when it went into liquidation. The assets where bought up by a company called Ebac, which has the distinction of being the only UK manufacturer of washing machines, with everything being moved from Scotland to Co. Durham and the name lives on. As far as I am aware this has no connection to the plant which manufactured the successors Rolls twin tubs up until 1981 or so.

I started out expressing my opinion that the product was doomed but about history repeated itself about 25 years ago (I think) when they marketed a Dutch made twin tub at a time when the UK twin tub market had all but died out. This has been discussed here before (search Norfrost Twin Tub) and our friend ChesterMike has a video of it on YT.

 

[jamiel]

Yes, this is what I was thinking of. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[bellalaundry]

I'd Sure

like one of those twin tubs! Fascinating gear drive! Thanks for posting!

Guy