Get to Know the Antique Parlor Stove Better!

Facets & Features of the Parlor Stove Loading, Cleaning and Controlling the Parlor Stove
	LOADING The parlor stove is a great of heating stoves and can warm anywhere from 2-6 rooms. It has a large loading area on the side where a built-in smoke shelf prevents smoke from rolling out as the stove is loaded. The stove can comfortably hold a 16-24″ stick of wood. The wood is placed on top of a grate inside of the stove. The fire can burn an average of 8-12 hours. The length of stick and burn time, and the amount of rooms warmed, will depend on the size of the cylinder stove.
	DRAFT CONTROLS Parlor stoves have both primary draft controls located in the front of the stove below the front door. When starting the fire, open up the primary controls. This allows for the air to come in directly under the grate causing the fire to ignite and burn from the bottom up. Once the fire is well established, adjust the primary controls as needed to regulate the fire.
	CLEAN OUT Cleaning out the stove is very convenient with a cylinder stove. Every parlor stoves come with a handy ash pan that sits directly under the grates inside the stove. To clean out the ashes simply remove the ash pan and dump the ashes in a safe location. Please use caution when discarding the ashes so to prevent starting a fire in any other location other than inside your cylinder stove. The ash pan allows you to clean out your stove even when the fire is still burning. And the good news for folks who don’t like to dust, the ash pan keeps the fly ash to a minimum.
	COOK LID All parlor stoves have at least one cook lid located beneath the dome at the top of the stove. Most of the lids are about 8 inches in diameter. The cook lid is ideal for holding a pot of water that acts as a humidifier. And it is a wonderful location to warm a pot of tea. So while the tea’s steeping, lets pull up a chair and enjoy the cuddly warmth from the stove with a cup of wild berry zinger herbal tea.

CAST WITH STYLE - A Display of 19th Century Cast-Iron Stoves from Albany and Troy

CAST WITH STYLE
19th Century Cast-Iron Stoves from Albany and Troy
January 26 - May 25, 2008

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The Albany Institute is nationally known for its excellent collection of 19th century cast-iron stoves. This exhibition includes over 35 stoves cast-iron stoves made in Albany, Troy and Schenectady, including ten stoves recently donated by avid collector and renowned architect John I Mesick. The exhibition is enhanced by a seslection of prints, drawings, photographs, stove catalogues, and advertising materials. During the nineteenth century Albany and Troy, New York manufacturers were considered to be among the largest producers of cast-iron stoves in the world. Stoves made in these two upstate New York cities were renowned for their fine-quality castings and innovations in technology and design. The strategic location of Albany and Troy, located nine miles apart on opposite banks of the Hudson River afforded easy and inexpensive transportation of raw materials to the foundries, and finished stoves to worldwide markets.

Cast-iron stove making reached its highest artistic advent of the cupola furnace permitted more elaborate designs and finer-quality castings. Stove designers borrowed freely from architectural and cabinet-makers design books, a process that resulted in the use of Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Rococo revival motifs; patriotic symbols, and Franklin, box, dumb, base-burner, parlor, cook stoves and ranges and parlor cook stoves. However, the stoves that attracted the most attention and helped to secure the reputation of stoves produced during the 1830’s and 1840’s. These stoves were a focal point for a Victorian parlor because the overall designs incorporated current tastes in architecture, furniture and other decorative arts.

A facsimile edition of the 1984 exhibition catalogue will be available in limited numbers in the Museum Shop.

Above: George Washington Dumb Stove, Alonzo Blanchard, 1843, Albany, NY, Cast Iron; ht. 48 3/4″; w.15 d.9, AIHA Purchase: Rockwell Fund, 1992.7	Above: Dumb Stove Representing a Full-length Classical Female Figure, Alonzo Blanchard, 1843, Albany, NY, Cast Iron; ht. 48 3/4″; w. 14 d.9, AIHA Purchase:, Rockwell Fund, 1992.8

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