Does anyone know the history of this machine?
Does anyone know the history of this machine?
I saw this in a flee market and found it simultaneously horrifying and hilarious. I'm curious about how something like this might have come to be?
17 comments
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I’m curious about how something like this might have come to be?
Racism + money + a love of coffee.
Rough guess, it was produced between 1940s and 60s.
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After 1946 when the lever espresso machine was invented, until around 1961, when the modern look came in.
https://counterculturecoffee.com/blogs/counter-culture-coffee/history-of-espresso-machines
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Is it called a "flee" market because you ran away after finding that?
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That looks like something straight out of BioShock Infinite.
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Looks like a custom made espresso lever machine. Very unique and odd.
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Some searching online shows tins of a "Mammy's Favorite Brand coffee" with a similarly racist depiction.
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Vintage racist stuff like this is HIGHLY collectable. There's at least one museum of it that I'm aware of.
A quick Google search of "Mammy's Coffee" didn't come up with anything, but man, that looks like a huge find to me.
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This comes alive at night, right?
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Try making a wish and see if it makes your coffee cup big.
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"Double shot of espresso with a side of racism please..."
I mean, it's impressively ornate and academically fascinating, but also absolutely horrifying.
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That needs to be destroyed by fire.
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Coffee: A portafilter machine I guess. It brewed coffee once upon a time. It even has those steam pipes to froth milk. The writing on the lower left says coffee something. There is a portafilter.
Don't know anything about the decoration.
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The decoration is an old racist style yearning for the good old days when everyone had their own kitchen slave.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammy_stereotype
Its called Mammy's Coffee so its a direct reference. It's creepy and uncomfortable.
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The mammy is usually portrayed as an older woman, overweight, and dark skinned. She is an idealized figure of a caregiver: amiable, loyal, maternal, non-threatening, obedient, and submissive. The mammy figure demonstrates deference to white authority.
Um yes. Racism. And bad taste. Thanks.
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It's got a weird mix of features that don't match.
The mammy figure and side art appear to be bolted on a spring lever espresso machine, even the plates around the drip tray appear to be added on.
The Mammy's arms as the lever would be a feat of engineering to be functional because the force is in the wrong place if this was adapted from a center lever machine.
The only side lever machine that I can find that might serve as the basis for this is a vintage Gaggia that was made up until the 70s. https://greatinfusions.com/vintage-gaggia-compact-82-espresso-machine/
The front has some anachronistically modern features, like the lighted rocker switch to the bottom left that is typical of 1980s appliances, and that small rectangular plastic looking water level window to the left which again points to something more recent.
The copper tubing as the steam wands doesn't make sense as everything that looks like this has the flexible wands.
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Some great observations there. I hadn't really thought about the power switch, but that does look completely out of place and modern for this machine.
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17 comments