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Wednesday 25 January 2012

Kettles for your Woodburning Stove 'new lamps for old'?



The Alice in Wonderland 1920's Stove Kettle

As in the case of Aladdin's wife, in the famous story from The Thousand and One Nights, if a man is outside offering "new lamps for old" you should think twice with your kettle and your lamps. An old lamp, and an old kettle are worth more than you know and certainly have character in abundance.

Yes, you can buy a new stove kettle these days but would you want to? You can't beat a vintage stove kettle for your woodburner, my particular favourite, pictured above, dates from the 1920's and is huge. It holds about 4 litres of water and is my 'Alice in Wonderland' kettle. It would have looked perfect at the Mad Hatter's tea party. I think the sleepy Dormouse was in the tea-pot but if he chose to get into this kettle, there'd be plenty of room. 



1940s Stove Kettle
This 1940's kettle pictured above, made a brief appearance in Roman Polanski's The Pianist, in battle-torn Warsaw, our hero is secreted in a safe haven flat and makes himself a pot of coffee using this stove kettle.

Most of the stove kettles we have available are chrome with a bakelite handle and lid grip. Some have the added attraction of being copper bottomed. There's a huge advantage to owning a stove kettle that sits on your wood-burner all day long. Keep it filled up with water and it will gently heat up, providing you with warm water, or hot if you've got your burner going full bore, and will definitely save you a few pennies in electrically boiled kettles. A stove kettle with a copper bottom is going to give you faster transference of heat from the top of your wood-burning stove to the bottom of your kettle. Copper is a fast conductor of heat and not every kettle we've come across has this advantageous metal. 

1960's Original Chrome Stove Kettle

Stove Kettles throughout the 50's and 60's continued to be manufactured both in the UK but most prolifically in France, which is where all these kettles are from. The distinctive sixties style is evident in their shape, particularly the one below, whose handle reminds me of a Teddy boy's quiff. 

1960's Original Chrome Stove Kettle with copper bottom



1950's Chrome Stove Kettle

At darty and pike, we generally have a wide selection of original stove kettles but they sell fast so if you don't see anything on the site then drop us an email to see what we might have waiting in the wings. 

1940's Chrome Stove Kettle


If you've got a wood-burner with a nice flat top it will be perfect for a stove kettle. So rather than buy a contemporary kettle, that may not match the style of your stove, consider a fabulous vintage one from France, where a wood-burner is de rigeur in every country property. 

Check out what we have in stock: