When Lucy promises Ricky in the episode “Lucy Goes to Monte Carlo” that she and Ethel will not go to the Casino, she picks up
a Michelin PARIS guidebook to find a restaurant. Of course she picks “Le Grille” that just HAPPENS to be IN the casino.
While maybe not the exact book, these are very close:
In the Season 5 episode Lucy Meets the Queen the Ricardos and the Mertzes arrive in London, and Lucy and Ethel go to the palace in hopes of seeing the Queen. Ethel is seen referring to a copy of the Britain 1955 edition of Fodor’s Modern Guides – Lucy is hoping to catch a glimpse of the Queen but gets distracted when she tries in vain to make one of the palace guards smile, and as a result she misses her chance when the Queen does come out.
The guide book Ethel refers to is titled Britain 1955 from the Fodor’s Modern Guides series – Fodor’s Modern Guides, Inc was founded in 1949 to provide practical information for tourists, with updated yearly editions . For that era, this was new concept in guides books which became essential for the 1950’s traveler.
Find Fodor’s Modern Guides at amazon
Currently there appears to be a copy at :
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=8649948430
Find Fodor’s Modern Guides on eBay
In another famous episode, “The Young Fans” (Season 1, 2/25/52) where teenagers, Peggy and Arthur have crushes on the Ricardos, Lucy and Ricky take action and dress up as octogenarians. At one point, Lucy hands ‘old Ricky’ a toy drum to show Peggy that he is indeed Ricky Ricardo.
It appears that Lucy actually hands it to him upside down, but that’s how the prop was sitting waiting for her to use.
The toy drum was made by the Ohio Art Company (still in business) and looks to be vintage 1930’s or 1940’s by the artwork.
See Ohio Art Drums on Etsy (US)
The Ohio Art Company was founded in 1908. Based in Bryan, Ohio, the company is known for toys including the Etch A Sketch, and Nanoblock. Their Diversified Products segment makes custom metal lithography products for food containers such as food tins, enclosures, DVD cases, and nostalgic signs.
Credit: Special Thanks to Rick for this post.
In the “Breaking The Lease” episode (Season 1, 2/11/52) the Ricardos and the Mertzes have a sing-along very late at night and
toast each other to their wonderful friendship. (Of course, this is BEFORE they have their big fight.)
The glass mugs that are being used look like they might be vintage Siesta Ware. These amber colored mugs featured chunky wooden handles held on by gold tone metal bands.
They seem to be readily available on Ebay ( Click here for a selection)
and also on Etsy (US)
I also see some on Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Vintage-Siesta-Ware-Wooden-Handles/dp/B007JWROBA
Credit: Special Thanks to Rick for this post.
Strictly speaking a prop is only a prop if the actor holds/uses it on stage or screen, other items that appear on set are called “set dressing”. Arguably, the most used props on I Love Lucy were the cigarette lighters. The Zippo Lady Bradford table lighter is one we see a lot of, usually it is placed on the coffee table as seen above.
A quick search on eBay today produced this vintage Zippo Lady Bradford table lighter Click here to see the listing.
Ref: http://www.zippo.co.uk/subpages.php?mod=starRole
On eBay this week there is a wooden poker chip carousel advertised as an original prop from I Love Lucy. Card games were a popular form of recreation in the 50’s and this is reflected in the series.
Click here to see the listing.
See more vintage poker chip carousels on eBay.
See more vintage poker chip carousels on Etsy
See more vintage poker chip carousels on Bonanza
In the episode LUCY GOES TO THE HOSPITAL which aired January 19, 1953 the show opens with Ricky researching ideas for a mask for a “Voodoo” number for his show. The book he refers to is Masks of West Africa – 1952 by Leon Underwood
http://www.amazon.com/Masks-West-Africa-Leon-Underwood/dp/B0006DCVHG
http://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/masks-of-west-africa/author/underwood-leon/
Update: Scan of the page from the book Ricky is looking at:
Lucy is learning to flip hotcakes with her aluminum griddle. Her griddle is flat aluminum with a curved handle similar to this vintage griddle I saw on eBay today – pictured below. Another similar brand to look for is Wear-ever who are still in business today.
Also pictured above on Lucy’s stove we see a white enamel saucepan. This saucepan has vertical sides and a slim handle which helps narrow down the search. The only close example I found on eBay today was the unused 1940’s Leader brand enamel saucepan pictured below still with its original label -Click on the pictures below to see the listings.
Tips for cooking with aluminum:
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/232/Cooking-With-Aluminum
Lucy is occasionally seen using her aluminum double boiler, but perhaps most famously when she heats up a potion to use on Ricky’s hair in the hilarious scene from which the above captures are taken. 
Lucy’s double boiler has a distinctive shape that widens at the base which helps narrow down the possible makers when searching for a vintage one like it. A good match is this vintage Comet double boiler seen on ebay today.
A double boiler is really two saucepans – a smaller one fits above the base pan below. The base saucepan is used to hold simmering hot water which should not touch the bottom of the top pan so that the steam creates a gentle heat without burning. It is used when you don’t want direct heat under the item you are cooking, such as when making certain custards or sauces, melting chocolate etc.
In the first few early episodes of I Love Lucy we see a round toleware wall clock over the mantel in the Ricardo’s livingroom set. This clock was soon replaced by the octagonal one we looked at in a previous post. The round tole clock with handpainted leaf design is very similar to the Sessions tole clock with the matching hand painted leaves seen on eBay this week. The green Sessions clock pictured above is an electric model. the dial is a bit different from the one on the show but the metal casing is a good match – the hand painted leaves on each clock appear slightly different due to the hand painting. I have seen similar hand painted tole wind-up clocks made in Germany. The Sessions clock seems easier to find than the octagonal one and is found in a few different colors.