In the I Love Lucy episode Don Juan and the Starlets Ricky is seen holding an interesting metal waste basket. It is decorated with an antique song sheet.
There was an identical trash can on Etsy recently as pictured below. You can see more pictures of it on the Etsy listing.
Vintage prints of the 1922 Utrillo picture seen on I Love Lucy seem to be quite rare. There is one on offer online CLICK HERE to see it – still available as of Oct 9 2015 – I don’t know the size.
Lucy Ricardo’s coffee grinder can be seen in various locations in the kitchen throughout the I Love Lucy series. In the early episodes it is easily spotted on the kitchen shelf. Lucy’s coffee mill is a wooden hand cranked grinder with an ivy design on the front. I came across one just like it pictured below. The ivy decal appears to be hand painted. The wooden box has a 4.25″ square base and curved corners and the drawer has a distinctive metal handle, the knob on the crank arm is an inverted teardrop shape. I have searched extensively for an ID of the maker. One would assume this is an ordinary coffee mill much like any other but when you begin searching the subtle differences stand out. Some of the vintage European made wooden coffee mills look similar but only one I have come across matches well.
1950’s Coffee Mill with Ivy decal similar to Lucy’s
The only make I have found up to now that fits the form factor, measurements and shape of the components is the B.O. Garantie square Wooden Coffee Grinder that was made in Czechoslovakia until production ceased when the company was taken over by the state in 1950. They may have been imported and sold under a US brand but I have no information on that as yet. Below is a page from a vintage catalog showing some of the products of the B.O. Garantie firm. However I have not seen one with an ivy design in any of the old catalog pages I found online.
B.O. GARANTIE Vintage Catalog page . The Futura model on the top right has a similar shape to Lucy’s coffee grinder.B.O. Garantie Coffee Mill 1940’s
The B.O. Garantie firm has reopened in recent years under the nameLodos and they still produce coffee grinders today.
Vintage shabby B.O. Garantie coffee grinders can occasionally be found online. If you are a DIY enthusiast it should be easy enough to strip the paint from an old shabby one and and restore it to look like Lucy’s coffee grinder. [ For paint removal on any vintage item I recommend a safe paint stripper that can render inert any leaded paint layers for safe disposal (Lead Out™ Paint Stripper is highly recommended ).] Look for one that has no dovetail on the front seams, which you can tell by the vertical straight lines that appear on each side through the worn paint as seen in the picture to the right. (if it were dovetailed the square shapes would be seen). To restore the metal parts see the handy link below in the reference section.
Comparison of B.O.Garantie grinder (right) with an unmarked grinder like the one on I Love Lucy(left)
Lucille Ball personally owned Spaghetti Poodles Sold by Heritage Auctions
Lucille Ball loved her pet poodles. Her personally owned poodle figurines pictured above were sold by Heritage Auctions. The figurines are called Spaghetti Poodles and were popular collectibles in the 1950’s and can still be found on eBay. Below is a set just like the pink spaghetti poodles in Lucille’s collection followed by a white one also like Lucy’s and they are currently available on ebay.
Spaghetti poodles like Lucille Balls’s seen on eBay
In the I Love Lucy episode LA at Last there is an Asian themed figural table lamp in the bedroom of their LA hotel suite. I saw a lamp base just like it on eBay.
Asian Figural Ceramic Lamp Base seen on eBayAsian Themed Table Lamp in the Ricardo’s Hotel bedroom In LA at LastAnother view of the Table Lamp. I Love Lucy, LA at Last
Lucy, Ricky and Bill Holden in “LA at LastThe famous coffee cup scene in “LA at Last”
In a hilarious scene from the I Love Lucy episode LA at Last Lucy finds a novel use for a cup of coffee. The cup and saucer are square shaped and the cup handle forms a distinctive ear shaped curve. We now have an ID for the coffee cup thanks to a generous contributor to this blog.
FRANCISCAN WARE TIEMPO CUP & SAUCER SET Source: eBay
The coffee cups and saucers seen on the show are by Franciscan Ware ( a trade mark of Gladding, McBean & Co ). The Franciscan Tiempo single color line was produced from 1949 – 1954. It featured a squared shape and came in several colors including apricot, yellow,white,grey, lime green, olive green, brown and tan.
LIFE Sep 9, 1940
This design first appeared in the 1940 Metropolitan range that used a two color pattern by Franciscan Ware designed by Morris B. Sanders in 1940 as an entry for the Metropolitan Museum of Arts 1940 Exhibition of Contemporary American Industrial Arts, and was one of the first “square” dinner sets
Franciscan Metropolitan 2 color pattern seen on Etsy
The Metropolitan range were colored white inside the cups. The single color design called Tiempo appeared in 1948/49.
[phpbay keywords=”Franciscan Tiempo cup saucer” num=”2″ siteid=”1″ sortorder=”BestMatch” templatename=”columns”]
Radiant DeLuxe Champion Projection Screen, I Love Lucy -Home MoviesRadiant ad-Popular Mechanics Oct-1949
Ricky Ricardo is seen on his home projection screen in the I Love Lucy episode Home Movies. A closer look at the logo tells us it is a Radiant DeLuxe Champion Projection Screen from the Radiant Manufacturing Corporation. The original Radiant Champion model was renamed as the Radiant DeLuxe Champion in 1949 and was advertised at a price of $15 that year. It was described as made from a new glass beaded fabric called Vyna-Flect “which overcomes the hazards of fire and mildew“.
Radiant DeLuxe Champion Projection Screen seen on eBay – click picture for detailsLogo seen on the Radiant DeLuxe model seen on Amazon.com – click picture for details on AmazonPopular Photography May-1950Popular Photography Dec-1949
In the video clip above there is a section of the western sketch in Lucy’s home movie where the video and sound in some of the segments run backwards, on youtube there is anther video clip from the show that reverses the video so you can find out what they are saying at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57oENa8VeXc References
Little Ricky keeps his pet fish, named Mildred and Charles, in a large shallow glass fish bowl. If you search eBay for vintage fish bowl you will usually find a few just like the fish bowl Lucy is carrying in the above screen capture from the I Love Lucy episode Little Ricky gets a Dog
Vintage Anchor Hocking Fish Bowl
The Anchor Hocking 1 gallon fish bowl is a good match for Little Ricky’s one.
Lucy Hates to LeaveThe Telechron Dorm Electric Alarm Clock with the front cover removed on I Love Lucy
In the Season 5 episode of I Love Lucy entitled Lucy Hates to Leave Lucy is awake at night worrying about the move to their new house in the country. On the bedroom shelf there is a hexagonal alarm clock.
1953 Telechron Electric Alarm Clock Ad
The shape and dial of the clock is an exact match for the white dial verson of the Telechron “Dorm” alarm clock. A closer look at the clock in the screen capture reveals it to be missing the cover in front of the dial. With the cover removed we notice clips at edges of the clock face to keep it in place. Pictured below is a black version of the same clock on Etsy (US) and from the photo we see how the window in front of the dial is curved and catches the light and would be too reflective for the studio lights- a practical reason for removing the front cover on set.
The alternative dark dial version of the Telechron Dorm model – also seen in the ad above
In an earlier post we looked at the owl bookends on the I Love Lucy set. The were identified as Vienna Cold Painted Bronze bookends like those seen on Etsy HERE. Since that post I came across another pair quite like them. They have the heavy stone/marble base and are painted metal but the metal appears to be cast iron on the spots where some paint was missing.
Painted Cast Iron Owl Bookends on a Stone /Marble BaseBorghese Owl Bookends seen on Etsy this week – Click Picture to view on Etsy
Vienna Painted Owl Bookends like the pair on I Love Lucy
The most expensive are the Vienna pair but the others work well as less expensive substitutes. I got a Borghese pair and am tempted to try to repaint them to look like the Austrian pair after watching the video below on how to paint a marble effect for the base.
See it at Etsy (US)
An exerpt from George Bickham’s “To Chloe” from the publication The Musical Entertainer
In an 
