Hotpoint Electric Toaster
date: label: date made
content: ca 1932
label: patent date
content: 1925-08-25
name: label: maker
content: Hotpoint Edison General Electric Appliance Company, Inc.
notes: label: Description
content: Electric single-slice “tipper” style toaster. Chrome-plated metal with flared Bakelite base. U-Shaped block with canted corners and opening on one side. Art-Deco style low-relief diamond ornament on either side below a central leaping gazelle within central rectangle with radiating stepped and angled panels. Stepped black Bakelite handles mounted on either side. Woven black-and-white cloth power cord with brown-black two-prong plug. Rotating black Bakelite knob moves panel to insert toast. Heat dial mounted within base. Small rectangular crumb drawer above power cord has black Bakelite knob; slides out to empty. Interior mica heating panels are wrapped in metal.
label: Description
content: Bottom of base reads: “CAT. 129T31 W.525 V.115/MADE IN U.S.A./BY EDISON/GENERAL ELECTRIC/APPLIANCE COMPANY/GE/PATS: 1551336/CHICAGO, ILL ONTARIO, CALIF.”
label: Description
content: Embossed on top of base: “Hotpoint”
label: Description
content: Patent:
label: Description
content: US1551336A: 1925-08-25, Jacob L. Shroyer, Chicago, Illinois, assignor to Edison General Electric Company, Chicago, Illinois, for “Electric Toaster”
label: Description
content: Designed by Raymond E. Patten in 1932 for the Hotpoint appliance division of the Edison General Electric Company.
label: Description
content: Maker is the General Electric Company, Inc., formed in 1892 with the merger of the Edison General Electric Company and the Thomson-Houston Company. In 1918, General Electric Company merged with the Hotpoint Electric Heating Company, creating the Hotpoint brand of appliances.
label: Description
content: The quest for the perfect slice of toast led to many innovations in toaster engineering and design. A September 1930 Ladies’ Home Journal advertisement proclaimed this Hotpoint single-slice electric toaster produced “Golden brown slices of scientifically caramelized goodness” as well as being “the most beautifully designed toaster in over twenty-six years of electric appliance leadership.” Hotpoint was a British appliance company founded in 1911. In the 1920s, through a joint venture with General Electric, the two companies began to make electric toasters for homes in both England and the United States.
label: Description
content: Electric toasters, which did not gain real popularity until the late 1920s, were often a symbol of modernism. The toaster’s “Art Deco” styling was a combination of many different art movements of the time. It used geometric shapes and unusual, modern materials to create a new, “modern” aesthetic that became increasingly popular until the great depression.
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Chicago
topic: label: Subject
content: appliances
label: Subject
content: Food Culture
label: Subject
content: Household Tools and Equipment
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
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content: Food
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content: Art
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content: Domestic Furnishings
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content: Artifact Walls exhibit
label: Exhibition
content: Art in Industry
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Joyce Barth and Florence E. Scuderi
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1992.0338.16
label: catalog number
content: 1992.0338.16
label: accession number
content: 1992.0338
objectType: label: Object Name
content: toaster
label: Object Name
content: toaster, electric
label: Other Terms
content: toaster; Electric
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel, chrome-plated (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (Bakelite) (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: mica (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 18 cm x 19 cm x 13 cm; 7 1/16 in x 7 1/2 in x 5 1/8 in