Local Carboot find, with kettle and spare gas cartridge. Not normally my thing, but it is in such good condition I had to have it.
Hello Matthew92 Very nice stove and rare in such a good state! The flower shows what the French name "bleuet" means. (Centaurea cyanus) Regards Radler
Matthew, that is a lovely example. I think you have caught the 'gassie' bug from too much contact with Nigel.
Hi @Radler thanks for the info, I gather the flame is supposed to resemble the flower, it looks very much like it anyway. Thanks @shagratork it is a particularly nice one, I think that is what drew me to it. Originally I went back for the kettle, but as I was searching for a pound in my pocket, I spied the stove on the same stall. £5 later, I had both with me. Perhaps it is Nigel's fault, it is nice to have someone to blame. I gather from the others I've seen with the plastic control buttons that this is an earlier one, with an aluminium button. Possibly one of the first from the 50's? There is a printing number on the tin that ends with 57, so perhaps that suggests a date. The cartridges also have number stamped on the bottom, both end in 65, those don't look in keeping with the age of the stove, so I would say they are later additions.
The CampingGaz catalogue from 1956 shows a similar model: https://classiccampstoves.com/attachments/1421752831-bidon_bleu_camping_gaz_1956-page-005-jpg.15308/ The first half/mid of the fifties seems to be a realistic time frame. Radler
Mmm, I fear Nigel may have caught the bug from me, so is this the start of an epidemic? Advertisement I featured HERE from an early 1950's copy of Paris Match. The way the flame is depicted on the illustration of a lit stove is surely intended to resemble a cornflower as you have already mentioned, Matthew. The lantern atachment would be a good find (photo courtesy of @Lampenkueche) John
Thanks @Radler and @presscall this stove seems to be getting older all the time. I've never seen the adverts for these Gaz stoves, but I love them. I to would like to find one of those lantern attachments I quite like the look of the case shown as well, looks like it contains the stove, lamp and spare cartridges. I'm not sure that I'm quite a gas convert yet, I haven't even admitted I'm a stovie yet. Only a couple of people have seen the haul I brought back from Newark this year.
Well, it was the gassie that started off the popularity of the disposable gas cartridge, first produced in 1948 I believe. Also courtesy of @Lampenkueche, who evidently has loaded a pair of Bleuets in his carrying case instead of just one stove, the lantern attachment and four spare gas carts (plus the one installed in the stove).
Thanks @presscall I didn't realise that's what the case looked like, in the advert Radler linked to, it looks like machined aluminium or a wicker basket.
In reality clear/transluscent plastic, so more mundane (and cheaper) than either aluminium (you were thinking of engine-turned alloy I think) or wicker. The pattern on the case in the illustration Radler provided appears to extend to the globe too, so it suggests a printing issue in the original or in reproduction.
@presscall engine turned is what I was thinking of, forgot what it was called earlier. I see what you say about it extending up to the globe, so it would appear to be a printing issue.
Hi @scouterjan I didn't think about it when I posted the first pictures, but anyone who hasn't seen one might not realise how small they are. Here is a picture with a Svea 123 and the spare gas cart sat on top of the 123.
@presscall Hi John, I think @Lampenkueche has the set depicted in the link that @Radler gave. My rusty French tells me that the kit contains a stove, a lamp, 5 cartridges and 2 mantles. Which implies to me that the globe is part of the lamp and not an adaptor. I don't know whether that will make it easier or more difficult to find one...... the glass will surely have even the most easily broken or lost over time. Regards John
@Jeopardy By adaptor I meant the gallery that mounts the globe on a Bleuet stove underpinnings. There wasn't a Bleuet stove and a separate Bleuet lamp but a stove and a lamp attachment to adapt the basic Bleuet to either function, a bit like the contemporary Black and Decker D500 drill with jigsaw and orbital sander attachments. Yes indeed, 4 spare gas carts in the set plus the one installed in the stove. John
Wow thats small. I have a couple of the more modern stoves and a lantern, lantern is my favorite for back packing Jan
Be aware that the cartridges have been out of production for a long time. I have however been able to refill it when sitting in the stove.
Sometimes cartridges are showing up on the second-hand market. In France there's a lot of 48 of them for sale, for 25€. A shame I'm too far from it...
