Any oddball collections?

Vlad

Vlad

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#1
Aside from accessories, what are some unusual things you collect?

Personally, I have a real affinity for mechanical computer keyboards. I have always been fascinated how little the human personal computer interfaces changes in the last 3 decades. Also, I've always been trying to recapture the feel of the old IBM Model M or Cherry switches that my mom used at her university job and I used to play on after school. The delightfully tactile clicky switches that had such a distinct feel to them.
 
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#3
I've since deaccessioned, but for a while I collected vintage refrigerators, the earliest electric ones. It started with my love of the now iconic GE Monitor Top, an example of which still lives here. But I also acquired super early Frigidaire fridges (1920s) and some others. At one point there were two vintage ones in the main kitchen, plugged in but mostly for fun ambiance, and my real working fridge stayed in an adjoining pantry room, and another one or two in the basement. I've always been enthralled by the field of industrial design and the designers themselves. The main problem in the electric era was (1) recognizing that the functioning parts were exposed, which was both ugly and unsafe, so (2) coming up with solutions to aeshetically integrate the function within good form. To this day I still don't put a normal conventional fridge in the main kitchen because they're soulless. :smile:

I also love and have owned vintage stoves. I had a 1936 Westinghouse electric that thrived for 60 years--(I didn't have it that whole time, naturally)--it only died when the beautiful dark blue porcelain steel interior of the oven finally cracked.

I still check out vintage appliances in movies. You can see a beautifully framed monitor top fridge shot in the first Rocky movie.
 
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#4
jellyv said:
I've since deaccessioned, but for a while I collected vintage refrigerators, the earliest electric ones. It started with my love of the now iconic GE Monitor Top, an example of which still lives here. But I also acquired super early Frigidaire fridges (1920s) and some others. At one point there were two vintage ones in the main kitchen, plugged in but mostly for fun ambiance, and my real working fridge stayed in an adjoining pantry room, and another one or two in the basement. I've always been enthralled by the field of industrial design and the designers themselves. The main problem in the electric era was (1) recognizing that the functioning parts were exposed, which was both ugly and unsafe, so (2) coming up with solutions to aeshetically integrate the function within good form. To this day I still don't put a normal conventional fridge in the main kitchen because they're soulless. :smile:

I also love and have owned vintage stoves. I had a 1936 Westinghouse electric that thrived for 60 years--(I didn't have it that whole time, naturally)--it only died when the beautiful dark blue porcelain steel interior of the oven finally cracked.

I still check out vintage appliances in movies. You can see a beautifully framed monitor top fridge shot in the first Rocky movie.
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How fun!

I always felt like old school, free-standing fridges were a lot sexier decades ago, compared to the newer, boxy and boring designs. I would draw comparisons to how cars in the 40s and 50s were much more elaborate with their design language than modern cars (obviously, safety considerations also played a large role in design changes).

How does one go about sourcing old fridges and getting those delivered to you? I'd imagine you would spend a healthy amount on shipping...
 
#5
Well Vlad, as an ex-Buckeye, you may appreciate that finding old stuff in the heartland is not that difficult. This is where stuff goes to die. :biggrin:

So in fact I sourced these great old appliances within a drivable distance in OH. This was a long time ago...I was also hunting up other cool things like electric fans, irons, weird telephones, etc. that books on design and Art Deco were covering as icons of industrial design. Some I displayed, some I sold. I had a lot of success when nobody else was looking.

Oh, and you're so right drawing the parallel to car design. There was a lot of spillover of design ideas, with some designers coming up with both cars and machines--like Raymond Loewy.
 
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#8
Johnpauliegal said:
Well I don’t consider my collection oddball lmao. But hey, it may be to others lol. Great collections guys!

I collect Beatles memorabilia!
Here’s just one section of my memorabilia room. I have 3 other walls and other sections of my home lol.
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That is some serious dedication. How many pieces in total, would you say? Thanks for sharing!
 
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