Vintage?
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Antiques are items that have been in existence for 100 or more years. We have a few antiques, though nothing of anything other than sentimental value.
Vintage items must have attained an age of at least 40 years. Our Kenwood mixer may qualify as vintage. I’m not sure when we acquired it – oh, I’ve just been told it was 1972, just before we ‘bought’ this house. I say ‘bought’ advisedly – it was actually the year we mortgaged ourselves. It was many more years before we actually owned the bricks and mortar and the land they rested on. So, yes, our Kenwood is vintage.
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Kenwood electric toaster, 1947
Image source
Kenneth Wood, who established Kenwood (get it?) designed the first electric toaster to toast both sides of the bread without touching it in 1947. At first, he worked out of his garage but soon found he needed more space and moved with his then business partner, Roger Laurence, to factory premises in Woking, Surrey.
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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
A year later his foundation food mixer was manufactured and became an instant hit across the world. The original mixer even polished cutlery, though I don’t know how it did that. It was a sleek-looking machine and would not look out of place in a modern setting.
In the following decades Kenwood chefs were produced at intervals with modified applications. The latest model, the Titanium Chef Baker, which appeared in 2021, has integrated scales as well as all the other bells and whistles that have been added over the years.
The Titanium Chef Baker, 2021
Image source
Kenwood has its headquarters now in Havant, Hampshire. In 2001, the company was bought by De’Longhi, the Italian small appliance maker.
Your Kenwood Chef has lasted well, I'm on my third! (in 49 years)
ReplyDeleteYou must use yours a lot more than we use ours - 3 in 49 years is going some!
DeleteInteresting. I didn’t know about the history of the Kenwood brand and hadn't realised it was still going. Most things in my kitchen are now vintage, including me.
ReplyDeleteThere are Kenwood factories in China, Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam.
DeleteHi Janice - my Kenwood looks like that - still works wonders when I use it ... and I have bubble and squeak to make over the weekend. Love it - memories of the Aga variety back x number of years ago!! Nice to see Jellicoe supervising the kitchen! Cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteIts's good to use something that is sturdy.
DeleteHaHa! Goodness! The memories have come flooding back....
ReplyDeleteThe Kenwood Chef...Mia Mama had one, she always had one,
she had one...forever..she must have had it for some 75yrs,
until the day she died..98..! And, l remember it only going in
for repair..once..! Amazing product..!
If it had an M.O.T. the first owner would have been Noah..! :).
Though if you want to see vintage things..'STILL'.. being used,
Pop round any afternoon, and l'll take you round my home, for
a demonstration of various kitchen items etc..etc..
My 55yr old Ronson 2000..up until five years ago it was used
daily, now just three/four days a week...Great hair dryer, great
machine, built to last...HeHe! Go on....Google it...! :O).
🎁 🎉 🎁 🎈 🎁 🎉 🎁 🎈 🎁 🎉 🎁 🎈 🎁 🎉 🎁 🎈
Things were built to last decades ago, not so much, now.
DeleteThe headquarters you could drive past so quickly, it's just a smallish building on a small industrial estate, Havant is a small town, just outside Portsmouth, many years ago it was a huge employer.
ReplyDeleteI often wonder how small towns survive these days, with little or no industry.
DeleteVery interesting. We were given a Kenwood mixer by a friend in the 80s. It was so heavy and was clearly a high quality machine. It could whip cream so quickly. I can't remember who we gave it to. As good as it was, it hard to beat a current Kenwood stick blender. Our Kenwood mixer looked just like yours. The other mixer looks like what my grandmother used, but I can't remember the name of it. Maybe Sunbeam?
ReplyDeleteThe Sunbeam mixer is older than the Kenwood.....
DeleteIn 1928, the company's head designer, Swedish
immigrant Ivar Jepson, alongside Bernard Alton
Graham, invented the Mixmaster mixer...
Introduced in 1930, it was the first mechanical
mixer with two detachable beaters whose blades
interlocked....
The first Kenwood..A700..Launched by Kenneth
Wood, came out in 1950...!
HeHe! What a fun day for mixing it...! :O).
I'd forgotten all about Sunbeam!
DeleteI no longer have antique appliances due to the fact they wore out and there are no repairmen any more. Just buy, use, and discard! I wish other wise. My mother had a Sunbeam from the time I was little in the '50's until she died in 2001.
DeleteBuilt in redundancy - it's wicked.
DeleteVintage appliances are made to last...and it shows. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Or replace it either.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Newer isn't necessarily better despite all advertising to the contrary.
DeleteBuilt in Britain for an Italian firm. We've sold all our industry.
ReplyDeleteYour Kenwood looks the same 'vintage' as ours, but mine is less often used I suspect. Do you have all those mincing, sausage-making, blending attachments as well?
ReplyDeleteWe inherited a food mixer from my Dad, but hardly ever use it. It just sits there, on the kitchen counter. And it's not even as aesthetically pleasing as your vintage one ... And as a collector of kitchenalia, I would be absolutely thrilled to own that 1947 electric toaster! xxx
ReplyDeleteMy mother had the junior partner to the Kenwood Chef - the Kenwood Cheffette, and that lasted throughout my childhood and on until she gad to give up cooking after a minor stroke in her early eighties.
ReplyDeleteI have quite a few vintage items, but only a few antiques. My oldest treasure is my grandmother's chifforobe. According to family lore, my family brought the piece with them when the Huguenots fled France several hundred years ago. I have no way of verifying the family lore, but I cherish the story and the cabinet.
ReplyDeleteJellicoe is just gorgeous Janice! Look at that sweet face! Well yes i do have a few antique items in my home (including myself some days!!!) but I do love anything "vintage". I have acquired a few of Mums old appliances that are certainly vintage - mixer, slow cooker & pressure cooker. That is fascinating about the Kenwood mixers..
ReplyDeleteI didn't know it was Kenneth Wood who established Kenwood.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
For many years I had a Kenwood food processor which made the best sponges! It finally broke a few years ago and Kenwood no longer had replacement bits so I now have a new one - but it's not the same.
ReplyDelete