Vintage & Antique Electric Toasters
We Can Help You Sell Your Early
Electric Toasters and Other Early Electrical Related Antiques!!
We are full time antique dealers of early
electrical technology and devices. We conduct our antique
toaster sales from the site
www.Patented-Antiques.com. When
you are done here please visit that page to see our current offerings of
antiques we have for sale and to see how we conduct our consignment sales
for these and other antiques.
Antique Electric Toasters
Below I will give you a short tour of the world of
electric toasters. We are interested in
buying
& selling early electric toasters
that date from around the turn of the century and the beginnings of their
introduction to the marketplace and development. There are also some
very collectible ceramic electric toasters that date from the 1920's and
30's.
It was shortly after the turn of the century that the first
vintage electric toasters had their commercial introduction into the American marketplace. It was during this period that some very interesting
and yet simple designs of antique electric toasters were
produced for the
American consumer.
The first patent for a toaster was granted in 1906,
and the first successfully marketed toaster was General Electric's model D-12
(pictured on the left). This early electric toaster came in several variations over the
years. This toaster was also available with a decorated base and over the
years the heating element and design of the rack changed a couple of
times. Today it is a very popular collectible and it can sell in the
$250.00- 2500.00 range depending on the model and condition. I
recently
sold one with chipped feet for under $100 to give you an idea of what
condition can do to value. It is the first model that sells
for the highest amount, and the rest fall in the 200-700 range depending
on condition and a few other factors. They still turn up, and are
not all that rare, but because of their desirability still sell well.
Other porcelain based toasters like the Blue Willow pattern
toaster and the other assorted color porcelain / ceramic base vintage
electric toasters like the Toastrite and
Porcelier antique toasters are also very desirable and in high demand even
today in this depressed market. 
The antique toaster on the right is another example of this basic
early style
with its simple legs and coil filament wire heater design.
It is marked faintly on the base, but the date is unreadable and most of
the other information is as well. Other
early vintage electric toasters have mica reflectors and many of these
toasters with
exposed or different and unusual heating elements are of interest.
Toasters went through several periods of design changes
during their early development and there are examples from
each era that that we are interested in. Most collectible toasters were introduced or marketed before the
1930's. After this period the field was narrowed to just a few of the powerhouse makers
churning out toasters for the modern kitchen in huge numbers. Most
toasters produced after this period are pretty common and other than savvy
buyers who are buying them to use have little value in the collectible
market although many of them make great users. We still use a
vintage Sunbeam.
During the heyday of production
innovative designors / makers were offering different designs, and today
these
different styles are referred to by nicknames describing the way in
which they operated---droppers, floppers, tippers, perchers, pinchers,
sliders, swingers, flat beds, pop-ups, etc. Within each of these
designations there are easy to find examples and some very hard to find
ones.
There are many mass produced toasters with
these designs from the 20's & 30's that are still fairly easy to find today and are quite
common. I have quite a few of these for sale on our other site
www.Patented-Antiques.com right now for some very
reasonable prices if you are looking for those.
Condition is very important to value and
toasters that were stored properly
or still in use in Great Grandma's old time kitchen and still look great today
are usually pretty nice. Rusted out,
burned up, banged up
relics that got thrown in the basement with a dirt floor or out in the
garage where they rusted are not going to be desirable or have much value.
The
D-12 Toaster by General Electric pictured above was the first of the porcelain base models to come to market but there were
others to follow and a main competitor was the Simplex
Quality that is pictured on the left. As with many of these early
collectible toasters, this model also went through several design changes during it production
life. This is an earlier model with wire wrapped ceramic posts or
elements. Later models had an arrangement similar to the D-12
above. This one is a fancy upgrade to the D-12 with its fold down
doors that
were made to be removable and the wire pull-out rack at the top to keep a
piece of toast warm while waiting for the next ones to come out.
It sell for a fraction of the d-12, and is actually quite easy to find.
Vintage Electric Toasters represent American innovation at its best, and there are plenty of examples of
great or zany i
deas that
went into the seemingly simple task of making a
piece of toast. On the right is an Edison, or Edicraft Clam-Shell
Toaster. I have seen this toaster in the past sell for as much as
2500, but in todays market when offered on eBay they do not break 200.
I kept my last one too long and learned a lesson doing it.
We are interested
in other porcelain or ceramic toasters as well. Most notable are the
Willow models in Blue or Red. Or the other solid color models made by the Toastrite Pan Electric Man. Co. 
These toaasters came in at least 5
different colors or decorations and we would be interested
in any of them. Also of interest are early ceramic toasters
made by the Porcelier Co. These
ceramic
toasters came in several models and in a
variety of different decorations and iridescent color schemes.
If you have or know of any similar toasters to
these please contact us at
LCM@AntiqBuyer.com
As
everyone was scrambling to try and get market position in this world of
new electrical technology, the designors were developing some very innovative and interesting
designs. The
different makers
were trying to sway the fickle consumer to
their product line. It was during this era of innovation, that every imaginable idea was tried to
impress the housewife or husband, who had not yet heard about not buying
presents for the wife with plugs on them. Toasters were introduced that had timers,
moving conveyors, automatic pop ups or downs, and a host of other novel
features.
We are
interested in
any toaster from this era that has unusual or interesting
design features and /or patented featrures.
Please
contact us at
LCM@AntiqBuyer.com
if you have a nice early toaster similar to those pictured that is for
sale, giving as many details as possible
. Thanks.
