The Opal Glass Light

A fellow Twin Cities bungalow owner sent me this email about her Tappan stove...

"Good Morning! We have so much in common!  My husband and i live in S. Mpls in a little stucco house too :) This oven was in the basement and we really like it, but it's in rough shape.  Do you know anybody who does restoration who we could talk to about getting it restored to usability?  Also, I am having a tough time finding this particular tappan model online at all.  It's 2622 wv271  Have you heard anything about this particular model? Thanks, really enjoy your site!"

I think this stove is most likely from the late 1930's - early 1940's. We have seen similar stoves from other readers with that great Opal Glass Light. It seems like the oven door handle holds the clue to they year....the more rounded handles, like this one, appear to be later and the longer more squared off handles appear to be earlier. As these stoves moved into the 1940's, the opening mechanism for the side storage cabinets moved from a turn knob to the lift release buttons that we see as standard on the Tappan Deluxe models.

Another Twin Cities reader sent me an email a while back with a recommendation of a local guy that worked on her vintage stove. I have not used him. If you do, I'd love to hear about your experience. His name is Al Ligons, and his company is Absolutely Guaranteed Appliance Service.

Sars, thanks for sharing your photos!

Clean, Fast, Economical and Modern

Anne sent me a photo of her model WX15-2-B2429 Tappan stove. She says that it works great but the clock and glass covers over that and the timer have broken. It has the oven on one side and a broiler on the other. It was purchased about 20 years ago in San Luis Obispo CA and is not original her house.

She has no idea of the age and said she has never seen another one like it. When purchased, it was very dirty but otherwise pretty much as can be seen in the pictures. The only restoration it needed was a little cosmetic touch. The little pieces around the timer and clock were re-chromed, as was the tiny "Tappan" plate. They had been cleaned too many times that the metal was worn off and discolored. The oven temperature knob says "Robert Shaw".

Anne says "It's a very practical stove with some features I really like. Being able to cover the burners is a nice touch. The space between the burners is so handy too, especially for canning. Big pots are no problem. You can also remove the lower trays to clean- no more ugly spills. The back light doubles as a nite lite."

I have a little surprise for Anne if you scroll down to the last picture. This comes from a 1940 Sales Manual....which I believe would put Anne's stove in the late 1930's.















Thanks for the email and photos Anne!

Odie's Late 1930's Tappan Stove

I received these photos from Tappan Talk reader Odie. His house was built in 1939 and he was wondering if this stove was original to the house. The stove is a model # WD 11-4

My 1940's company sales manual includes illustrations of the current year Tappan stoves they produced for Philgas....but it also includes some general promo pieces for Tappan that use older versions of stoves (I'm sure these pieces were not updated annually). So, I pulled out this manual and took a look through it's pages looking for an illustration of a similar stove. Bingo.

The manual includes general promo pieces that include illustration of a stove similar to this model. The promo pieces are talking about the new "divided top" work space..and the "ease of cleaning" the burners. This places this stove in the late 1930's.

One thing that makes me think this may be a 1937 or 1938 stove is that the burner handles and oven/broiler handles are more of a boxy shape..and that back splash has a timer & a clock. Compare this to Ron's stove, which is similar but most likely a little later, that has rounded oven door handles and a Visiminder.  Both stove have that very nice opal glass back splash light.

Also take a look at the burner covers on this stove.....they slide down in back for storage! Very cool.

The oven window seemed to be an option into the early 1950's. It looks like this stove also came in a two oven body....which makes me think this was at just the time when the switch to the Deluxe (oven in the middle w/ storage on each side) body style was taking place.

I'm curious what is on the floor in the right hand storage. It looks built in. Any ideas? 

Odie, thanks for sharing your photos and keep us posted on your restoration!

Ron's Late 1930's Tappan Stove

I received these photos from Ron of his mother's late 1930's Tappan stove. The back splash has the "opal glass floodlight", as well as a timer and Visiguide.

I have included some marketing pieces below from 1940. The 640 model (second to the last picture) is very similar to this stove...except you will notice that the 640 has lift release buttons to open the storage compartments on either side and Ron's stove has turn knobs (indicating it's an earlier model). You can see in the marketing materials, the back splash varies slightly from model to model as the design evolved.

I love the charming red details on the burner knobs and oven/broiler handles! Tappan also must have liked this detail because they used it in a number of the marketing pieces below.

Ron is looking for a new home for this stove. If you are interested, contact him here for details.

More of Chaz's Tappan Stove

Chaz sent on some additional pictures of his pre-Deluxe Tappan stove for our enjoyment. We figure this stove was just pre-Deluxe. You can already see the Deluxe design. You can read more directly from Chaz on his blog.

According to the vintage sales material I have, the handles on this stove's burners and storage compartments were just changing over to the Deluxe style around 1940.

I particularly like the back splash on this stove with the "opal glass floodlight" (as the sales brochure calls it). The metal sign showing how to turn the burner knobs is charming. I also like the written instructing how how to light the oven pilot. I think the white switch above the thermostat knob on the main control panel is a "peek switch" to turn on the oven light.

At first we thought this was a Tappan-Philgas stove, but the more I look at the photos, I think it was a Tappan stove propane that was made at about the same time as they were making gas stoves for Philgas.  It doesn't have the typical "Philgas" badges, the model number doesn't seem to follow the Philgas-Tappan system (which would make this a 1943 stove), and the badge on the back splash says "Tappan" alone. Chaz, what do you think? Possible?

Again, thanks for sharing!

Chaz's Early Tappan Stove

Another reader has volunteered to let us see his stove. Chaz has a 1934 Tappan (pre-Deluxe). You can definitely see the Deluxe model starting to emerge. The metal plate on the top of the left storage compartment makes me think this stove is a Philgas-Tappan stove. The right burner shows one of the early burner covers. It looks as if the little box in the center of the back splash is an "opal glass" floodlight (?)

Chaz's stove looks a lot like Model 640 from my 1940's Philgas Sales Manual (could it be a model 634?). The turn handles on the side compartments must have been changed to "trigger touch" lift release knobs about 1940...because there are also photos in the same Sales Manual that show the turn handles.

Chaz - thanks for the photo.