There are a lot of unknowns regarding this stove. Even deciding the wording of the thread title has involved much head scratching. The style of the tank is in the tradition of Arvid Böhlmark, but it is a revised interpretation and it is not clear whether Böhlmark himself was actually involved in creating the stove, or whether Trässman & Petterson were in the the driving seat. A further caveat at this stage is also that the stove as acquired was basically the only the tank, all of the original detachable fittings were missing. The burner and pump rod assembly and cap are all later Optimus components which I have pulled together in deference to the later transformation of Trässman & Petterson's company into Optimus in 1899. The filler cap is a contemporary Primus item. But the pump NRV assembly is original and exactly matches those found on my later date Rylander Record and @stejar's closer-in-date Record Patent. Stejar's post is the only one to show the NRV in any detail. Both of these stoves also share the same Record Böhlmark-style tank which has a concave upper band in contrast to Böhlmark's original use of a convex moulding in the same position. The bottom of the tank has no markings but clearly shows tooling marks from having been spun rather than pressed: The riser female threads are very worn and fragile, the operation of the NRV is also rather fragile but may yet settle better after the soak in ATF fluid which was used to coax it back to life. Nevertheless both held up well enough for a successful demonstration burn: So what about the 'Svea' model name and the fate of this model? First, to be clear, use of the name Svea on this stove has absolutely no connection with the later Nybergs Svea brand stoves. Second this stove only seems to appear in a sales advert, in January 1897. It will be seen that the main part of the advert is to promote a new 'Record' stove with a new self-lighting silent burner challenging the then brand new Primus No.6 silent burner. On the other hand readers are only asked to 'request a prospectus' for the Svea model, which is claimed to have a new type of 'completely self-cleaning burner', also self lighting, and suitable for kitchens that are not suitable for larger stoves: (Source: Aftonbladet, 29th January 1897) Strangely, however that seems to be almost the last heard of this 'Svea' stove. The next advert from the Record company, little over a month later only mentions the 'Svea burner' but not the full stove: (Source: Svenska Morgonbladet, 6th March 1897) And finally, barely another 2 weeks later, a further revision of the Record advert not only has the 'Svea' name and burner both vanished altogether, but also now shows a new illustration of the Record stove with its special silent burner now sat on top of the tank which had previously been that of the 'Svea' stove: (Source: Stockholmstidningen, 17th March 1897)
Judging by the January 1897 advert and image I think it very likely that this Svea stove was originally intended as a vehicle for a novel 'self-cleaning' burner that Trässman had applied to patent in 1896 (see here). It may well have been a failure of this burner to live up to expectations that lead to the exceptionally short life of this model. That the attractive tank design was then adopted for Record stove production would also explain why a few Record stoves have the Record name applied to their tanks in the form of a soldered on plate - presumably covering up the Svea name so that remaining Svea-marked tank stock could be repurposed for Record model use. @Nicola Francesco Elia
Hello Ian, as I was suggesting some time ago here: Svea dating ie bubble font and tubular burners this “Svea named” stove was introducing the burner patented by Trässman in 1896. In fact I overlapped the burner design over the old advertisement and the match was clear: Would be interesting to desolder a record plate to see if as you suggest the Svea engraving is there… that would be an interesting experiment and revelation Nicola
@Dean well, I think Ian Svea has been originally delivered as Svea stove in 1897… I think that if a Record plate was soldered on it we could maybe see some traces of the solder, especially on the engraved name, that looks crisp and not hardly polished away. In any case the point is another: the curiosity is to desolder a stove that actually has the plate to have confirmation about this theory and so to understand why some record stoves use a plate and some others don’t. Nicola
@igh371 , Ian, what a detailed, and in depth report! The sleuthing that has taken place to find info for this stove, is admirable, and amazing! Thank you for sharing this with us, and thanks to @Nicola Francesco Elia , for the additional info, and questions. I've enjoyed this thread very much, and doff my chapeau to you both for your dedication in the quest to more knowledge about this "SVEA". Great stuff, all around! Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc
Recent conversation with a new but already esteemed CCS member reminded me that I has failed to add update photos for this stove after I had been fortunate enough to source a trivet that matches the old publicity advert illustrations (above). Here is the omission corrected:
@igh371 That would have to be one of the most intricate cast iron trivets I’ve seen! So precious to have it intact as well…
