by Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson
Scripps Howard News Service
Dear Helaine and Joe: About 30 years ago I retrieved this two-gallon gas hot water heater from my great grandfather's home in San Antonio, Texas. The piece is heavy iron and has multiple coils of tubing and brass fittings on the interior. I put a little gold paint on the embossed trim on the door and have converted the piece to a lamp. For the photograph, I removed the lamp top and shade. What is the value of this piece?
--S. D., San Antonio, Texas
Dear S. D.: Well, we thought we had seen everything but this piece really takes the prize for the weird-but-wonderful object of the year! When we received this letter, we both loved the piece but we were not certain we could find any meaningful information about it--much less offer a monetary value.
We knew that all kinds of vintage appliances have become very collectible in recent years, but we also knew that what we see for sale tends to be items such as toasters, hair dryers, irons, mixers and other small household devices. These are usually placed into the category of "industrial design" and, as the name implies, collectors are interested in these items primarily for their design, style and decorative qualities and not for their function.
Most hot-waterheaters that people are familiar with have no distinctive style or decorative quality whatsoever. They are just ungainly tanks that live their lives in basements, closets and under staircases. They are just tossed out when they no longer function and we see no chance that they will ever be collectible because they are only functional, with no aesthetically appealing qualities at all.
Luckily, the hot-waterheater belonging to S. D. is an outstanding exception and is just oozing with eye appeal. It was made by the Pittsburgh Water Heater Company of Pittsburgh, Pa., and is their "Bungalow Automatic Gas Water Heater, Size BSV." The last patent date on this piece is Feb. 27, 1917, which means that this particular example was made within a few years of the end of World War I.
The decorative merits of this piece are seen in the raised lion's head mask, the grouping of castles, the tassels and the raised lines that form American Arts and Crafts style rectangles around the heater's body. Most purist collectors would have preferred S. D. not to have accented some of these design elements with gold paint, and this does reduce the value just a bit.
However, the completeness of this hot-waterheater with its valves and coils of tubing adds to the value, and S. D. should think of this as being the Cadillac of hot-waterheaters. Its architectural form and cabriole legs are very pleasing, and its insurance replacement value is between $1,200 and $1,500.
(Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson are the authors of Treasures in Your Attic . Questions can by mailed to them at P.O. Box 12208, Knoxville, TN 37912-0208.)
Resources Treasures In Your Attic
by Joe L. Rosson, Helaine Fendelman (ISBN: 0060198273)
Subtitled: An entertaining, informative, down-to-earth guide to a wide range of collectibles and antiques from the hosts of the popular television show seen on PBS stations.
(Harper Resource, April 2001)
Order this
title.
Treasures In Your Attic
c/o WSJK/WKOP-TV
1611 E. Magnolia Ave.
Knoxville, TN 37917
Phone: 865-595-0220
Fax: 865-595-0300
Email:
elaine_tomber@wsjk.pbs.org
URL:
www.treasuresinyourattic.org
)
