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Quirk Gallery’s “Cabinet of Curiosities” will showcase an extraordinary collection of miniature kitchen appliances and fittings made in the fifties as toys for little girls.Edited by Madelyn Miller, the travellady
Quirk is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., or by appointment. Visit our website at www.quirkgallery.com for details and related links. Quirk Gallery Other things to do in VirginiaHELPFUL WEBISTES GREAT GUIDEBOOKS REVOLUTIONARY MOTHERS BEST VIRGINIA MUSIC BEST VIRGINIA COOKBOOKS Celebrate Virginia! BEST VIRGINIA CHILDREN’S BOOKS BEST HOTEL FOR SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY Richmond Could you have survived? Visit the website, www.Jamestown1607.org to learn more and play the interactive experience, "Stories of a Nation." |
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Robert Brown began collecting toy kitchen appliances, as
many collectors do, by accident. One pink metal oven led to another, and as his
knowledge of this very fifties genre grew, so did his discernment. Whole
streamlined kitchens evolved in miniature, with oven doors that opened and
refrigerators that latched and metal cabinetry enameled to match. Since his
untimely death fifteen years ago, his partner, Byron Wampler, has kept the
collection intact. Now, for the first time, Wampler is sharing it with the
public. For the months of June, July and August the Cabinet of Curiosities at
Quirk Gallery will showcase this exceptional window into an era when the
post-war manufacturing boom aimed its marketing squarely at the little mommies
of the future.
“Rob was an appliance nut,” says Byron. “He would have
loved all the things that are available for kitchens today.” Growing up in a big
family in a cape cod house with mother at home and three sisters across the hall
gave Brown a fondness for the simplicity and warmth of domestic life. The
kitchen miniatures are emblematic of America’s emerging mass culture of the
fifties, with gender roles defined and supported by advertising. The collection
also illustrates the beginning of a whole world of products aimed specifically
at children. Most of the pieces in this group are a girly pink, which was the
first production color, followed by blue and yellow. Some have never been played
with, including a complete kitchen made by the Structo Manufacturing Company of
Freeport, Illinois. In 1959, individual components could be had for $5 to $9;
the whole set for $60, according to the included brochure.
At the end of this show, much of the collection is bound
for a museum of toys. Byron Wampler says, “It is time to let it go, and for
other people to enjoy it.”
