The mother of all stoves

This print in its original frame was purchased in the late 1970s from a small shop in the Fremont district of Seattle. The dealer who sold it to us said that some guy in Spokane had the stove built for his restaurant or hotel, and that he was so proud of it, he decided to have this photo taken of it.

I don't think so. More likely this airbrushed print was created by the stove manufacturer, Lang, for restaurant supply company showrooms like Kalberer, which was my favorite such shop in Seattle since they had lots of old Shenango and Homer Laughlin china for sale. My guess is that the print dates to the 1950s, but it could be as early as the late '40s.

What's great about this image are the fake airbrushed highlights and shadows, which strike me as overly dramatic for a stove. It's as if the artist treated it as a race car, or something. But the other cool thing about the print, which appears to be a lithograph, is its size. The thing measures about three feet across, so it has a very strong presence in a room. The Battleship Stove; the U.S.S. Grill; call it what you want, it's a monster.