OK, fine, I’m stuck in the past- in fact, I’ve often said that if I’d been born a century earlier, there’d be a river or a small country in Africa named after me.
But I still happen to appreciate a lot of older stuff, and it’s quite frustrating to find that genuine items from a certain time period (especially anything from before the 1960s) is often worth a fortune- yet no modern reproductions exist!
For example, the Mauser C96 “Broomhandle” is a very popular 9mm handgun, and highly sought after. They stopped making them in 1936, and nowadays they invariably sell for around AUD$1500+ (for one chambered in 7.63 Mauser and in average shape). I’ve never seen a “Red 9” (9mm Parabellum) Mauser Broomhandle, and I often find people on the historic gun forums asking the same thing: Where are they all, and why isn’t Uberti or Armi San Marco (or even Mauser, for that matter) making a modern version in 9mm Parabellum? If the market can support umpteen different reproduction of the various Colt/Remington Cap & Ball revolvers, surely there’s room for a Mauser C96?
Also on the firearms topic: Martini-Enfields in “Modern” calibres that are easy to get ammo for- say, .308, .30-06, and 8mm Mauser, modern reproductions of the Beaumont-Adams Double-Action Cap & Ball Revolver, and a Webley Mk IV in .38 Special.
But it’s not just limited to guns- there are plenty of “Classic” household items that don’t seem to be available- starting with a modern, touch-tone version of the 1920s style Candlestick Telephone.
Surely there’s a market for this stuff? I can’t be the only one who likes his stuff to predate the Korean War!
Come, join me in describing the classic products that no-one does modern reproductions for… don’t be afraid…
I’ll have to ponder more to come up with old things I’d like that aren’t being reproduced. Usually my complaint is that things are not made as well as they were in the past.
Candlestick phones are being reproduced, by the way. You can find a good selection here . We have one and love it.
I’m on a seemingly endless quest to find reproduction wallpaper from Birge – now defunct, it was a major American wallpaper company. If you have ever visited the Teddy Roosevelt historic site at Sagamore Hill (Long Island), you’ve seen a lot of Birge. The company’s founder was also the president of Pierce-Arrow Motor Cars (that has nothing to do with wallpaper, I just think it’s interesting).
There are a lot of wallpaper companies these days that offer historic reproduction designs at insane prices, only no Birge! And I’m willing to pay insane prices!
This has really become a full-blown obsession for me.
Also on my list is a 302 Desk Phone. Someone makes a reproduction that looks pretty good, but it isn’t too difficult to find actual refurbished models so I’m probably going to hold out until I come across one of those in bakelite (don’t you just love the hand-feel of bakelite?). Oh, those are available now so it isn’t really related to the OP, but the mention of candlestick phones reminded me that I also have a phone obsession.
A lot of this stuff is probably not reproduced because collectors are afraid that copies, however shoddy, might hurt the market value of the originals.
Actually, I think a lot of it isn’t reproduced simply because it only has ‘kitsch’ value, and therefore not a mass-market item. There’s nothing a candlestick phone can do that a nice cordless handset won’t do better. Candlestick phones were designed the way they were because you needed a place to put a rotary dial. Rotary dials are a pain in the butt now - it would be simple enough to make a replica rotary dial that still dials touch-tone numbers, but why?
So if you don’t need the heavy rotary dial in the base, you can do better form factors than a candlestick. Same with the old 302 phone - huge, heavy, and unnecessary.
So if there’s no practical value in them, then the only reason to buy them is nostalgia. That limits the market dramatically, especially for an item that needs heavy, expensive parts and custom tooling.
As for the broomstick Mauser, are there people who actually see them as a superior gun, rather than as just something that is very collectable? There are plenty of very collectable guns that are simply not as good as their modern counterparts, although this argument isn’t as strong for guns as it is for utilitarian devices like telephones, because many gun owners own them specifically because of their history (which is why you can still buy plenty of Colt single action revolvers).
What you cannot get – ever, and not even in the future – is Liederkranz cheese. It required a particular bacteria strain for its flavor, but they never documented what (it just happened to be in the factory where they made it). Once they stopped manufacturing it, it was lost forever.
Singer Featherweight sewing machines are highly prized by quilters, despite their total lack of any modern features. Why Singer doesn’t come out with an exact reproduction and make some money I don’t understand. Oh, some companies may make lightweight cheapy machines, but nothing comes close to a real Featherweight for accuarcy and reliability.
Yeah…I took mine (my mother’s, actually, it’s older than I am) Singer Featherweight in to get it cleaned and conditioned and the sewing machine shop guy offered me $1000 for it!
I have the original attachments, the original instruction booklet, and a couple of extra attachments including a buttonholer. But still, this cannot possibly be worth $1000 merely on its own merits, even though it’s a nice durable sewing machine.
Typewriters. I happen to really like typewriters. In particular I like my portable Olivetti (there is a picture of it in a book from the Museum of Modern Art called The Machine and an identical model to mine has appeared in several movies) and I like my IBM Selectric.
Now, I seem to be sort of hung up on writing implements. I also like fountain pens, and I used to have quite a collection of old ones. But as it turns out, even though I can’t get the cheap Estabrook, a lot of people are still making quality fountain pens that write well and have the added benefit of not having rubber bladders that disintegrate. But as far as I can tell, nobody is making typewriters. It’s gotten fairly hard to find ribbons for my Olivetti. Nobody is making Selectrics, either–although those ribbons aren’t so hard to find.
The Mauser Broomhandle has a reputation for being accurate, reliable, and effective (Winston Churchill and T.E. “Lawrence of Arabia” carried and used them).
Sure, there are plenty of modern 9mm semi-autos about (and the reason no-one will make a .38 special version of the Webley Mk IV is because there are plenty of better .38 special revolvers out there, and anyone who wants a Webley has one), but I’d be willing to bet that if Mauser started making Broomhandles again, people would buy them- especially target shooters.
After all, they still make Lugers, which really aren’t that great a handgun…
Also fantastically engineered. Pretty much the first practical semi-automatic handgun, all parts fit together by mechanical interlocking (apart from the wooden grips which were screwed on), and by all accounts pleasant to hold and shoot.
I can’t see why anyone interested in pistols wouldn’t want to own one. Although a Borchardt C93 replica would be even more historically interesting…
The problem with making a reproduction broomie is that a realistic, functioning copy made from complex forgings like the original would be insanely expensive. A shooter-grade original would probably cost dramatically less. About 10 years ago, a company down in Texas tried to sell a modern, stainless steel copy of the Luger. It died like a pig for a couple reasons. First, it didn’t work well. Lugers, like the C-96, require a lot of time consuming hand-fitting of parts to function reliably. Secondly, although it was polished to an acceptable degree by present standards, it didn’t exhibit the degree of polish common to arms of the early 20th century. Lastly, even with the shortcuts, it still came in at a price about equal to a shooter-grade original.
I’d like to have a working C-96 too. I don’t know that I want to pay a couple grand for one, though.
Singer’s gone through some bad decisions over the years. As was explained to me by a sewing machine tech, when they were American made, they were the best, then production was shifted to Taiwan / China and went to hell in a knitting basket with cheap materials and sloppy mechanical tolerances. AFAIK, their current production is from Japan, but still not quite to the same level it used to be originally as they’re building to a price point, rather than building to a quality point and pricing accordingly.
Judging by the rabid popularity of the newer electronic and even computer-connected “quilter” sewing machines on the market now, I’d wager there’s not a huge market for simple straight-stitch machines. I must admit that I look at these new machines and don’t understand the fuss.
As for phones, I’ve got a 302 in regular, daily use at home. And a couple Princess phones, a Trimline and a plain ol’ 2500 desk phone. (Gotta have something thta does touch-tone for those phone menu systems!) Unless you want a tacky Pottery Barn imitation, you can readily get working phones all ready to plug into a normal jack. Most old phones need nothing more than to have the old hard-wired cable replaced with one ending in a plug. Western Electric knew how to build phones that last (since they were responsible for the maintenance and upkeep back then) and unless you manage to drop it out a second-floor window onto concrete, an old phone is likely to keep on ringing for decades - there’s just no particular reason to copy them.
Out of production maybe twenty years ago, and it’s apparently never coming back–the mold owners (Revell) have looked into it, but the PC types nixed it. Darn shame–it was a model with humor. Goes for a lot on eBay. http://www.showrods.com/showrod_pages/dragon_wagon.html
The molds for this one were modified to make a different car, and apparently they can’t make a business case for re-modifying them back to the original configuration. http://www.showrods.com/showrod_pages/tijuana_taxi.html
This one actually reappeared as a hot wheels-style diecast not too long ago, but I’m guessing that it’s waywayway too non-PC for a reissue.
The molds still exist for everything except the clear parts, but again, they can’t make the business case to cut a new mold for the clear bits. Check out how much these things go for on eBay, sometime.
My question: how come you can’t buy those wild-colored ceramic plates and cups from the 1950’s anymore? I particularly like the radioactive oranges-it was a look I liked. And, would there be a market for 1950’s sty;e cars today? I’d love a brand-new 1957 Chevy!
