I was at my local market today and saw a Radius 42 in it's case. The seller was asking £8.00 so I didn't try and haggle! After paying for it I was about to walk away with my prize when the seller handed me a cardboard box and said "This comes with it". The only cleaning I've done is a wash in soapy water: The cardboard box: The top of the box is marked: The Harlequin Boiling Set Containing Genuine "Radius" Petrol Stove Burns for one hour at each filling. Takes only one-sixth pint of petrol. Boils a kettle in eight minutes. High Quality Picnic Kettle Aluminium Tea Infuser BCM/HARLEQ There are no other marks on the box. 'BCM' is an early form of PO Box introduced in 1925 and run by a private company. It stands for British Commercial Monomark. A private individual could have a BM and a company could have a BCM. Each followed by a unique six character identifier. To contact the holder you just addressed the letter or package to 'BCM/****** London'. At some point, the use of characters was changed to numbers. The company still exists today and has a website www.britishmonomarks.co.uk. The stove: The Radius 42 is the version with no Safety Release Valve on top of the tank. The winged filler plug in the base of the tank is marked 'Radius' 'Made in Sweden'. There is a single 'R' stamped into the underside of the tank. The bell and flame plate are unmarked. The bell is a little loose as it has a crack at the thread and the flame plate is missing a lug (no big deal). The key is unmarked. The case: The case is very sound but has no markings. I can detect brush marks in the remaining silver paint so believe it has been repainted in the past. It has a flat top, no accessory lugs on the front flap, and no curved cut-out on the 'mid platform' (not sure of the correct nomenclature). Either side of the case, below the row of holes, there is no indent as seen on some cases. The pot supports are a straight crossover and have been soldered in place at the front. The kettle: At first glance a fairly standard aluminium picnic kettle with no makers mark. It does however, have two interesting features. Firstly, the kettle lid is reversible. Screwed on one way it forms a seal, but when inverted it forms a vented lid. Secondly, instead of being retained by a chain, the spout cap hooks onto a cut-out in the handle. Neat. I've done extensive internet searching but can find no reference to Harlequin. I am assuming that they were a British supplier or retailer that bought in the stoves and kettles to make up into these boiling sets. I am unsure of the date of the set as I am not clear whether the stove without the SRV came before or after the stove with the SRV. I am leaning towards 1930's but may be way off so am happy to be corrected. Post-fettle flame shots will appear in due course. Best wishes, Terry Note - I was uncertain as to where this should be posted. 'Sweden - Radius' - as it has a Radius 42? 'British - Other' as it seems to be a British assembled set? Or 'Paraffinalia'? In the end I elected for 'British - Other', but will be quite happy if the Mods wish to move it.
Hi Terry. What a great find you have there. A neat way to market the stove and kettle combo. Would like to find something like that over on this side. Thanks for the great pics and commentary.
Hi Terry, Very nice, especially to get a complete set when you weren't expecting it. One could almost say that the vendor was a fool to himself. He could probably have said you could have the rest for another fiver. I see there's a tag missing on the flame speader! Another excuse to break out the old penny and cut up the bialaddin bowl fire tank? Best regards John
Funny you should say that John. I cut up the remainder of the Bowlfire tank the other day to make some more spreaders. Also going to experiment with some scrap stainless steel sheet I've got in the garage . Regards, Terry
Be very interested to see how the stainless steel ones fair with extended use. My physics teacher once told me that an old (larger) 50p piece would make an emergency spreader for the 96s that school provided for our Duke of Edinburgh Award expeditions. I never had to put that theory to the test but your findings about bending the spreader kind of make me doubt if the flame would have been terribly efficient. Best regards, John
Trojandog said, Good man Terry. Takes umpteen years to develop a patina. Shame to destroy it with an acid dunk and create more stove bling. John
Terry - £8 - OMG!!! An absolute stunner. I have not seen this set before and now I have I want one too! It shows that just round the corner, a gem of a stove is just sitting there waiting for me.
Reesssssult! Georgous. Wild stove hunting. So much more rewarding than pressing "Bid" or "Buy". It's all down to personal preference I know, but I'm with Presscall on the patina unless you want a pretty display shelf model. I notice there's an increasing number of pristine looking old stoves on UK ebay these days. To me they just look like a complete anachronism and don't tempt me to bid in the slightest. I'd probably be happy to pay good money for some of the rarer models if they hadn't had their patina "history" destroyed! Cheers, Graham. Cheers, Graham.
Georgous stove you've managed to buy. There's nothing better than being out in the wild and finding a stove like this. The Radius 42 is a favourite of mine, when it comes to the smallest of stoves. The kit is another excellent thing to have - makes it nice to have in combination with the stove itself. As far as I can tell, this is the first example of the oldest Radius 42 (with the filler cap at the bottom) which has the Shooting Star on the fount that I know of. I have two of these 42's and they both don't have the shooting star (with the Trade-Mark) on the fount. All in all, you've managed to buy a rare stove. Does anyone here on CCS have a Radius 42 with this famous and rare shooting star. Please post some pictures once you've managed to make her run. Cheers, Frank
Hi Frank (Lighthouse). I didn't realise the significance of the shooting star logo on top of the tank. Here is a better picture: Best wishes, Terry
There is now a post in the Radius section of the Reference Gallery giving more details of the stove with flame shots ( Link ).
