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The British Heat Resisting Glass Company"Phoenix"
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In June 2005 we were delighted to hear from Mathew Hargreaves in the USA. He is writing a book about coffee percolators and has two clear glass percolators made by Phoenix. We had not come across these before, the nearest being a glass tea pot.
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The six-cup percolator
(right), for domestic or commercial use, is marked in white:
"Phoenix Heat Resisting Glass" and "S.L.R. Electric Ltd"
British company, and Mathew thinks it is possible that they were
a U.K. office of National Stamping & Electrical Works based in
Chicago, or SLR licensed them to produce them for the U.K.
market.
Does anyone know anything about SLR Electric Ltd.? these photos are copyright Mathew Hargreaves, 2005 and may not be used in any form or medium without permission |
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The ten-cup commercial percolator
(right) is marked in blue with only the Phoenix logo.
The photos shows the original cloth filter with spring wire retainer. These were attached to the top of the siphon tube. With remarkable expertise Mathew was able to identify the filter as being the US patent filter* of the National Stamping and Electrical Works. These filters came into use in 1936 and, as this type was not made after World War II, they date the U.K. percolators from 1936 to 1939. (* U.S. Patent # 2,084,602) |
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Mathew kindly put us in touch with Nancy Curtis of Texas, who collects Pyrex and - surely uniquely in the USA - Phoenix. Nancy kindly sent us some photos of parts of her collection. One of them is shown here. These items are mostly Pyrex (and Nancy has some very remarkable examples, including engraved tea pots, the like of which have never been seen here) and we hope she will be sending photos of her Phoenix items as soon as a busy life allows. |
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In her turn Nancy drew our attention to a cookery
book: The Jackson Cookery Book by Ester Purvis. This was
first published by Odhams in 1931 and is mainly aimed at promoting
the idea of using electric cookers. The 1937 edition contains
this advertisement for Phoenix (as well as an advert for Holcroft's,
in which they promote the use of their cast iron cookware on
electric cookers!).
This is the earliest advert for Phoenix we have yet come across and contains some very interesting information. |
In the first place it gives the address from which you can get a free copy of their cookery book. (Has anyone ever seen this?). The address is Lodge Road, Birmingham. This confirms that administration was still taking place in Birmingham in 1937. Then they say that their dishes "have been designed by Elizabeth Craig to save labour - no crevices to hold greaser or dirt - handles that keep cool and make storage easy - rims specially constructed to hold pastry firmly". From the 1930s through to the 1960s Elizabeth Craig was the Delia Smith of her day and produced numerous cookery books (as well as some books on other aspects of housekeeping). How far she designed these early dishes we do not know but at the least she would have laid down criteria for the design and approved what was produced. Also the advert gives us a good idea of how Phoenix were competing with Pyrex: they claim that their dishes are more practical, more beautiful and are made by a special process "ensuring a clear glass, beautifully polished" which will "never become discoloured with use".
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