Is it safe?

Sandy, of the aforementioned 'We Actually Collect Electric Mixers' club asked me to post pics of my cake safe. Because of the teak handle, I am pretty sure it would fall into the Danish Modern catagory. Although that might be a huge assumption on my part. Kind of like people on ebay calling everything "Eames" trying to capture people in the search engine. (Did the Eames actually make kitchen gadgets, table cloths, toasters and purses? You should see the stuff attributed to them on ebay!)

I bought this cake safe at the resale store down the street from me. They have a lovely, but small, selection of kitchen stuff. It is on the third level, which is a sort of catwalk that overlooks the big second floor filled with furniture. There are deals to be had. I found a great, cream colored cassarole dish with cover for $12. The cake safe was on sale for $15. Occasionally you will find a vintage toastmaster or electric skillet. Even a cuisinart, once, with a bunch of attachments.

In the days following my foray into English mixers, I have been trying to account for the irresistable pull that vintage kitchen stuff has for me. I don't think it is nostalgia, exactly. My mother, though she is a superb cook, was not too into gadgets, especially vintage ones. She had a brief romance with a GE food processor in the late 70s, but mostly her cooking involved a big Glenwood C wood stove in the dining room of our farm. Yes, we had an electric stove, but for years, literally, the element in the oven was burned out, so we made do with wood in the winter and cooked on the grill or stovetop for summer.

My granny didn't have vintage appliances much, either. There was a toaster oven at the place in Canada. And a hot plate for when it was too hot to cook on the wood stove in her oven. At some point her daughter convinced her to install an electric stove and the woodstove was pulled out. But there was no mixer, no blender, no electric gadgets save for the tea kettle and Farberware percolator.

My dad certainly isn't into this stuff. He is a man who collects bits of nature. In particular, animal skulls that he finds on his daily walks into the woods. He has hundreds of them, classified and lined up on shelves. Periodically he culls his collection, giving away duplicate specimen to anyone he thinks might be interested. The other day, my children got a box, posted from Newfoundland, of teeth. Horse molars, beaver incisors, moose. Packaged in a box with a label for customs: Toys.

So where does this romance come from? I try to keep from collecting much of anything. I have the demon of aquisitiveness which I hold at bay by avoiding 'collections'. (Meaning three of anything!) I have a tarot deck collection which I am planning to dismantle. And a tarot book collection that I am trying to decide what to do with.

And now kitchen stuff. Both from the local junk store, and from Pampered Chef.

I wonder where it comes from?