Fireplace / Range Help? *PIC*

[Anonymous]

We've just moved into a cottage/house in Wales and wanted to find out more about this range in our Kitchen.
Can anyone help with identification?
It doesn't seem to have any name on it, just a Patent number and a date (1880). As you can see in the pic, it has 2 oven doors on the right and the fireplace on the left. The doors are inlaid with brown coloured tiles that also match the hearth area. It's got way too many layers of paint on it, so it currently looks pretty bad, although there's nothing broken etc.
I think the surround is Slate.
Currently we're unsure wether on not to keep it as it takes up such a huge amount of room.
Are this type of range worth much?
If we decide to keep it or restore it, I'm presuming it's cast iron and stripiing the paint followed by some stove black woyuld be the best way to go, correct?

I done no end of internet searching trying to figure out the make, model or even description, but no luck.

Thank you all.....

 

[Anonymous]

Pic in side the fireplace

 

[Anonymous]

The victorians published catalouges of ranges fireplaces toilets, almost every thing, your local library may be able to guide you in the right direction. The lovely old thing suvived 100 plus years 'will it survive you' it is a part of the history of the house and you may be glad of it if oil and gas prices keep on going up, that aside its a great feature that ads period charm not to mention value to your cottage. Save it and use it.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh how I wish I had that fireplace, my great gran had an identical one it was like spooty green enamel. Sounds foul but it was gorgeous and it made beautiful food in the oven bit.

 

[Anonymous]

Really? I've a feeling this was originally a strange green or blue, from the inside of the doors.

Are these types of oven originally enamelled? You think it would be OK to strip it and apply stove black? Or should I re-apply some enamel paint. Not sure what type of paint is on there now, probably just some gloss.......

Anyone know the correct name, for this type of oven? Is it just "A Range" or "Combination oven", anyone know?

 

[Anonymous]

The one I saw was in a very old terraced house in salford near the docks. It was definitely enamelled. Could you just scrape carefully a teensy flake of gloss off to see whats underneath? Perhaps a paint stripper would be better though.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi, I am not an expert but I thought enamelled ranges and that kind of hood (which looks post Victorian) dates from the late Edwardian period to the 1920s. I am no expert, but I suspect the 'date' 1880 may be the model number rather the year it was made. Victorian ranges were usually cast iron and not enamelled.

 

[Anonymous]

(different Peter)

Patent GB389271 has the title 'Improvements in and relating to Domestic Fire grates, cooking ranges and the like' and is in the name of 'W H Micklethwait & company.
This British Patent is freely available using Espacenet, the European Patent Office database which can be found at http://ep.espacenet.com
When you reach Espacenet, you should click on the 'Advanced search' link. This will take you to a page with a set of search options. Make sure that the first box titled 'databases' is set to worldwide. You will then need to write the publication number, in this case 'GB389271 ' into the publication number box which is the forth one down and click search. This will give you the patent title; if you then click on this you will see bibliographic data regarding this document. Finally click on 'original document', which is located just underneath the title, second box from the right and as long as you have adobe installed on your machine the full specification will be displayed.

Good luck

 

[Anonymous]

WOW, Thanks Peter.
Great Info there. Very useful for researching future finds too.