Raymond Loewy was one of many essential important and prolific industrial designers of the 20 th Century, so it’s no shock that he grew to turn into a contributor to the historic previous of steel kitchen cabinets as early as 1948. Welcome, Mr. Loewy, to the Encyclopedia.
Loewy and his company designed the “American Kitchens” mannequin of steel kitchen cabinets, which launched as early as 1948, primarily based on adverts I’ve seen on-line. In 1951, some implausible historic photos had been taken of the kitchen by Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner, whose work is now held by the Library of Congress. Thanks, heirs of the photographers, for sharing this glorious historic legacy of images into most people space! Above: The whole view of the kitchen with Hazel 🙂 Gottscho-Schleisner Assortment, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division Library [LC-G613-T01-59449-1/2].
Above: A crisp take a look on the cabinets. American Kitchens are pretty merely acknowledged by (1) their strains — see how that drawer curves out and up — very Loewy; combined with their (2) pulls — centered on the doorways, spherical. Credit score rating: Gottscho-Schleisner Assortment, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division Library [LC-G613-T-59454]. Heck you probably can see all the assortment proper right here, principally retakes of the two I’ve confirmed.
The photographs are labeled “Look” kitchen. I cannot uncover any predominant provides to level why “Look”. My first (at current hottest) hypothesis is that it was a shoot meant to supply guidance for illustrators for upcoming promotional catalogs. Loads of the catalogs for the time being included idealized illustration, barely than photos. A second danger is that it might need been {a photograph} shoot for (now-defunct) Look Journal.
The house gear are likely 1951 Frigidaires moreover designed by Loewy. And, the company even designed vinyl floor tiles for Goodyear, so I betcha.
In any case: This story is about Loewy and these American Kitchens mannequin steel kitchen cabinets — and there are some fascinating twists to this story — so onward!
Raymond Loewy American Kitchens cabinets had been obtainable in the marketplace by 1948
Sooner than I found the 1948 adverts on ebay, I started seeking indicators of these cabinets in the marketplace in 1951, contemplating that was their launch date. Using my newspapers.com subscription, I found the cabinets in the marketplace in 1952 at Polsky’s Tools of Akron, Ohio. The advert copy confirms designed by Raymond Loewy. It promotes a 54″ sink cabinet — full with drainboard sink with “the world’s largest sink bowl” and faucet — in the marketplace for $89.95 — $45 off. You’d moreover buy with 10% down and pay the steadiness over 78 weeks. Observe, $90 in 1952 might be about $850 in 2019. That looks as if an excellent deal along with the cabinet, drainboard sink, and faucet all-inclusive, don’t you assume?
Persevering with into 1953, I found this story/advert about Raymond Loewy American Kitchens going into new “govt” homes being inbuilt Atlanta. Oh, huge adverts about Loewy Kitchens you might probably buy straight from Gimbels in New York Metropolis (“search the recommendation of with our kitchen specialists on the eighth floor”) and from Howe & Bassett Co. in Rochester, New York, open Monday and Friday nights ’til 9!
This evaluation kind of makes me assume: American Kitchens is maybe pretty shut up by the Massive-3, Youngstown, Geneva, and St. Charles. Looks like the company had some attain.
Doing the newspapers.com evaluation, I moreover will agree with what I’ve been finding out about Loewy as a prolific contributor to American house merchandise. Poking spherical merely 1951-1953, I’m seeing Loewy-designed Arvin dinette models [many designs, I think]… an expansive differ of Frigidaire house gear… Nesco “nosegay” kitchen ware… Goodyear vinyl floor tiles, backyard chairs at Safeway (prohibit 4 per purchaser)… Bavarian china for the Easterling Agency — Spencerian Rose was one design… a Mosler safe, Stylish mattress room furnishings… trailers for Mid-States Corp. and that’s solely a wee sample of newspaper adverts and articles.
{Photograph} above: From a catalog in my personal assortment.
Biographies of Raymond Loewy:
You probably can nonetheless get the faucet for the American Kitchens sink
Amazingly, you probably can nonetheless get the faucets for the Raymond Loewy-design kitchen sink. This faucet is particularly designed to nest correct into the sink (barely than join by means of holes). See this story on the place to get it.
There is a agency in Amsterdam that restores and resells these cabinets
And great fascinating: >> There is a agency in Amsterdam
I’ve carried out quite a few tales about American Kitchens, which I’ve moreover referred to as AVCO kitchens — proper right here is one catalog displaying designs from 1953. The image above is from that catalog, uncover the pull-out cart and dishwasher constructed into the sink base. Such consideration to factor! Such manufacturing complexity!
That said, all through my evaluation on this textual content I made an infinite (for me) discovery:
Raymond Loewy moreover designed Crosley Steel Kitchen Cabinets
Okay, actually others know this. Nevertheless I didn’t. And hey, I truly solely not too way back started down the rabbit holes of business designers — e.g. Norman Bel Geddes and Servel Steel Kitchen Cabinets — involved in steel kitchen cabinet design. This is usually a distinctive method I merely discovered might be good for the Encyclopedia.
In my newspapers.com evaluation, I moreover ran gobsmack proper right into a 1952 advert for the “well-known” Raymond Loewy Crosley All Steel Kitchens. For optimistic you probably can see the resemblance — most notably, handles are utterly completely different. Persevering with down the outlet, I see (1) adverts for these lookalike Crosleys as early as 1950, and (2) this ebay itemizing for Crosleys, which contains cabinet label displaying Crosley was a subsidiary of AVCO. American Kitchens moreover was a subsidiary of AVCO — due to the ebay vendor for letting me archive the symbol proper right here! So there you’ve got it, two producers — with what appear to be the an identical cabinets — differentiated primarily by utterly completely different pulls and knobs — beneath one firm umbrella. Automotive corporations did primarily the an identical issue with a number of their producers. So why now AVCO? Which obtained right here first? Crosleys or Individuals? Or had been they launched on the same time? Are there any important variations? Did they every collapse on the same time, or did one collapse into the other? On a regular basis further questions.