Category Archives: Kitchen

Brock of California, I love Lucy Props, Kitchen, Little Ricky, Mid-century

Lucy’s Brock Pottery Dinnerware

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Little Ricky drumming skills are discovered

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.

Country Lane-Brown by Brock
I Love Lucy Breakfast Table using Country Lane in Brown by Brock

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.

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Brock Pottery set on eBay – click picture for details
Country Lane-Brown by Brock Pottery of Californai
Country Lane-Brown by Brock Pottery of Californai
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Country Lane-Brown by Brock
Brock of California plates on I Love Lucy
Brock of California plates on I Love Lucy

Reference:

50s Retro, Canisters, I love Lucy Props, Kitchen, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour

Ceramic canister set on The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour

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The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour Season 2 Lucy’s Summer Vacation

german-ceramic-canister-setOn 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.bluegingham

Calaprint, Kitchen, Mid-century

Lucy’s Leaf Print Tablecloth

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1950’s Leaf Print Calaprint tablecloth on I Love Lucy

Lucy’s Leaf Print tablecloth was made by Calaprint in the 1950’s. This tablecloth was made in a few color schemes. Recently we saw the following two versions for sale on eBay – a green version and a red version. Previously (in this post ) we looked at a green and pink colorway of the same print.  We can probably assume the colors of  the one the show had green in it rather than red because the set  colors tended to be chosen to compliment Lucy’s red hair even though it was filmed in black and white, furthermore the red one would have appeared somewhat darker in grayscale . This tablecloth was seen in several episodes and even appeared later in the Newport house in a kitchen scene when Lucy is ironing it.

1950's Calaprint tablecloth
1950’s Calaprint tablecloth seen on eBay
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Red version of the Calaprint design seen on eBay
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Calaprint label seen on eBay listing.
I love Lucy Props, Kitchen, Salt & Pepper Shakers

Accent Shaker Set on eBay like Lucy’s

Accent Shaker Set on the Range in the I Love Lucy kitchen

accent shaker set
Seen on eBay this week is a vintage Accent third shaker set in original box with leaflet and the plastic rack just like the one we see in Lucy Ricardo’s Kitchen on top of the range. I have seen these before but never with the original leaflet in the box.This is a three shaker set of salt, pepper and Accent Flavor Enhancer. The shakers are large around 4 inches high which made them easy to identify on the set.  Click here to see the Accent shaker set on eBay.

1953 Women's Day Accent Flavor Enhancer Ad
1953 Women’s Day Accent Flavor Enhancer Ad

These sets are not made anymore but if you have a vintage set you can buy Accent seasoning on Amazon to put in the Accent third shaker.

Lucille Ball used Accent seasoning in her cooking. In her Goulash Recipe she writes “Salt and Pepper to taste, add Accent“. Home cooks at the time knew what she meant even though the ingredient list did not mention it. Accent Flavor Enhancer contains MSG which is now considered safe to consume in normal amounts, it is widely used in Chinese cooking and many commercial foods including popular brands such as Campbell’s  Soups, Doritos and KFC.
Related post: http://www.50slucy.com/lucys-accent-shaker-set.html

I love Lucy Props, Kitchen

Vintage Cruet Set on eBay

The complete cruet set seen at an early date in the I love Lucy kitchen
The cruet set  in the I love Lucy kitchen

On eBay this week are a couple of cruet sets complete with original funnel, similar to the set in the Ricardo’s kitchen on I love lucy. Lucy’s set had an ivy pattern but these are from the same era and are a good substitute. Click on the pictures to see the eBay listings.
cruet2 cruet1

Related post: http://www.50slucy.com/lucys-kitchen-cruet-set.html

Kitchen, Vintage Electrical Appliances, Westinghouse

1952 Prices for Westinghouse Appliances

Use the Inflation Calculator below to see what Lucy Ricardo would have to pay for her Westinghouse refrigerator, range and vacuum cleaners in today’s money.  These are 1951 appliances on sale in 1952 – the regular pre-sale  price may have been closer to the 1951 price.

1952Westinghouse-sale
Source: 1952 Pittsburgh Post Gazette, May 16,1952

Inflation calculator from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:
Continue reading 1952 Prices for Westinghouse Appliances →

I love Lucy Props, Kitchen, Vacuum Cleaners, Vintage Electrical Appliances, Westinghouse

Lucy’s “Handy Dandy” Westinghouse Vacuum Cleaner Ad 1952

Westinghouse
Tank Cleaner
With Floor Polisher

$89.95 Regularly $113.20

lucy-vacuumcleanerIts the famous Dyna-matic Tank Cleaner with a twelve-piece set of attachments to make all your home cleaning easy. And with all this you get the speedy floor polisher to keep your floors shiny and protected. All this at one remarkable price. ( Source 1952 Pittsburgh Post Gazette, May 16,1952)

Lucy's

Prices in Today’s Money:

Using an inflation calculator the full price of $ 113.20 in 1952 has the same buying power as $1,002.66  in 2015 and the sale price at $89.95 comes out to $796.73 in 2015.

I love Lucy Props, Kitchen, Vacuum Cleaners, Vintage Electrical Appliances, Westinghouse

Lucy’s “Handy Dandy” Westinghouse Vacuum Cleaner


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In the I Love Lucy episode Sales Resistance Lucy falls for a slick sales patter and ends up with her “Handy Dandy” vacuum cleaner which is really an early 50’s  Westinghouse  Dyna-Matic tank vacuum cleaner.  The Westinghouse Dyna-Matic tank sweeper had a throw away inner bag and a set of attachments as seen on the show.

See another similar one on eBay HERE

Westinghouse Vacuum Cleaner 1950's
Pictured above is a well preserved  Westinghouse tank vacuum cleaner with attachments found  at http://www.vacuumland.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?3848 looking very similar to the one seen on the show – even the paper tag looks the same.
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A 1950 newspaper ad gives the price as  $49.95  which is equivalent to almost $500 in 2015 so Ricky’s reaction is not surprising. Incidentally Lucy is seen using the upright model vacuum cleaner in The Black Eye episode.0_0_3020_4320

According to this NY Times article ” Hoover executives saw an episode of ”I Love Lucy” in which Lucille Ball peddled vacuum cleaners door to door. Hoover cut a deal with the show’s producers to have one of its products, and especially its brand name, displayed whenever a vacuum appeared in the plot, Mr. Kravitz said.”

The Hoover that appeared on the show was possibly a Hoover upright model 62.

I love Lucy Props, Kitchen, Vintage Electrical Appliances, Westinghouse

Lucy’s Westinghouse Waffle Iron

Westinghouse-Waffle-Iron1
Lucy uses a Westinghouse Waffle Iron on an episode of I Love Lucy

In the I Love Lucy Season 4  episode The Business Manager the show opens with Lucy making waffles for breakfast on her Westinghouse “Grill-n-Waffler” Waffle Iron.  Unfortunately these waffles don’t get cooked because Lucy has not been paying the electric bills on time.  You may notice the studio audience laughing while Lucy is pouring the waffle batter, but at this point  in the story line  we don’t yet know the power has been cut – apparently the audience knew the plot, or perhaps this was not the first take . On eBay this week is a  Westinghouse Waffle Iron model HW 40-1  pictures below or Click Here to view the listing . I also see a very similar model SGWB-521 with original booklet.
Westinghouse-Waffle-Iron

Westinghouse-Waffle-Iron3

Click Here to find one on eBay