In the I Love Lucy episode “The Sublease” Little Ricky’s play table is among the items Lucy has to store at Fred and Ethel’s apartment. Little Ricky uses a state of the art 1950’s folding metal baby seat – a Cosco Feed-N-Play Table.There are a couple of them on eBay this week. Pictured below is one example. Click HERE to see the listing.
In the I Love Lucy episode Little Ricky Learns to Play the Drums Ricky discovers Little Ricky’s drumming talent when he uses his spoon to play drums on his cereal bowl at the breakfast table. Here we see a set of Brock Pottery in the Country Lane pattern with brown borders. Some matching bread plates can be seen on a dish rack next to the sink in the same scene.
Brock of California made the farm themed pottery with either brown or yellow borders. In one of the early episodes we saw Lucy using Brock egg coddlers with the yellow border – also sometimes seen on display on the kitchen shelf. Also on the table in the screen capture above there is the Franciscan Ivy milk jug and sugar bowl and the base of the ivy butter dish.
Reference:
In the I Love Lucy episode Lucy is Envious we see a plastic toy rotary phone on the mantelpiece of the Ricardo’s living room. In this episode Lucy is short of cash and searches the house for coins. She tells Ethel she even looked in the baby’s piggy bank but only found a couple of IOU’s from Ricky inside. Little Ricky’s savings bank is a match for the two color red and white plastic telephone savings bank by Amerline.
The toy rotary telephone savings bank is by Amerline of Chicago, IL, copyright 1945 . Currently there is one for sale online in red and white pictured above.
CLICK HERE to See it on Etsy
There is also one on eBay HERE but is it not a 2-color phone like we see in the screen capture above – it is being sold as an original prop.
This week on eBay I see a 9.5″ brass plate with a Desilu Studios label for auction at http://www.ebay.com/itm/321854560509 with the title “Extremely Rare I LOVE LUCY Tavern Scene Brass Plate TV Show Prop w/Desilu Label”. It is different from the plate we identified from the mantel of the I Love Lucy Connecticut house ( the tavern scene is similar but the border does not match). However there was a pair of smaller plates seen by a doorway that we had not identified. Thanks to Rick here are some screen captures of the smaller plates which have smooth borders so those are not a match either.
The listing on ebay this week forbids use of their images but I found another listing on eBay HERE that lists an identical plate – the plate on the left is of the same design as the one listed as a Desilu prop – here are the pictures :
These plates were made by the ELPEC Company of England which was registered in 1919 by C E Pascal & P Lloyd. They made reproduction copper and brassware initially based on Belgian designs. The plates at auction may well be Desilu props but so far I have not found a match for them on the I Love Lucy show .
Previously we looked at a Peerage Brass Plate identical to one seen on the mantelpiece on the show as pictured below. We also noticed that the brass plates used on the set were all mounted on a circular wooden backing, likely to prevent the brass from rattling on the set. Click HERE to see the previous post
On the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour Season 2 Lucy’s Summer Vacation we see a Deft style blue and white ceramic canister set in the kitchen of Lucy’s and Desi’s vacation lodge. A seller on eBay has a 16 piece set for sale and identifies it as a German ceramic canister by INGE # 3862. These have the same windmill design as the set on the show. The set for sale include five 8″ canisters consisting of the tea, coffee, sugar, oatmeal and barley plus three small canisters consisting of pepper, ginger and cloves. Click Here to see it on eBay
Match with blue gingham kitchen curtains to recreate the look seen on the show.
On eBay this week I see a set of Egg coddler cups like one Lucy used on the show – only difference is the brown edging – Lucy’s one had yellow edges. See previous post for info. and how to use them.
This week on eBay there is a vintage Story & Clark Upright Piano like the one on I Love Lucy –see it on eBay here – we looked at a similar one before in a previous post HERE
Here is another Margo Alexander print seen on the I Love Lucy set. This one is seen in the early episodes as one of three landscape prints on the back wall of the living room set. Later, after the Ricardo’s move to the bigger apartment it can occasionally be seen above the mantel alcove over the livingroom fireplace, as seen in the publicity picture below
Here we see the Margo Alexander picture indicated by an arrow uppermost above the fireplace. Below it are a pair of E Melvin Bolstad prints we looked at in this post.
More about Margo Alexander in this earlier post Here.
In the I Love lucy episode Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying To Murder Her
which first aired on November 5, 1951, Ethel demonstrates her fortune telling skills using her Bicycle Fan back playing cards. These had a distinctive design on the reverse that incorporates a fan and bicycle design originally issued in the 1890’s called “The New Fan Back” as opposed to an earlier fan design.
The fan back design is currently seen in the Canasta set available on the website HERE 
Vintage Sets can also be found on eBay HERE
In the I Love Lucy episode “Lucy Wants New Furniture” Lucy tries to economize by making her own clothes. Lucy’s uses a Free-Westinghouse sewing machine like the one pictured below which is currently for sale on eBay, except the one on eBay is attached to its own table, whereas Lucy’s was portable. The price for the cheapest model in 1950 was $69.95 per the ad below.
