A passion for stoves~
Val and Larry Sjoblom have the sign "Antique Stove Bounty Hunter" on their vehicle.  Four years of collecting and restoring has them sharing their home with 32 antique stoves and they own 15 more that are "waiting their turn" in the garage.  It was Val who brought the love of stoves to the relationship, informing Larry when they got serious that she had "this one little bitty addiction".  And it was from her mother June Nelson, Val explained, that she and other members of her family inherited the collecting gene.

"My mother collects everything -- just stuff", Val said as she smiled.  "The kids in her neighborhood think her house is a store.  But she doesn't get my stove thing.  If I'm going away, she'll remind me that I don't have room for another stove."

One of Val's favorite adages is that the only difference between a pack rat and a collector is that pack rats don't display their stuff.  Wandering through the Sjbloms' vintage stove collection is like browsing a museum exhibition.  Val so regularly rearranges the collection that Larry now houses many of the stoves on special casters so she can push them around herself.

Above, Sylvia #116 Right, Merit Universal with beautiful lady tiles!

Val's first rusty old stove was acquired by happenstance when she rescued it from the corner of a barn.  Four years later when she went to pick up the restored piece, her obsession with the history and the art of antique stoves began.  While fawning over the brilliance of what she thought was someone else's stove, she had to be convinced that it was in fact, her stove.  The knowledge Val has since gained about stoves is apparent but she credits her husband with "doing all the hard stuff" and allowing her love affair with stoves to thrive.

Above is our only cook stove "Happy Thought" At right is a 5 tube triple effect stove, one of the first gas stoves from 1910.

Conversation regarding vintage stoves involves terminology like "helmet, jacket, footrest, feed and draft doors, einsenglass (singlass) mica windows, swing top, ash pit, domes, finials" and many others.  The architecture and size of old stoves are highly variable.  Some of these heaters are wood burners and some are coal burners.  Some are "magazine" stoves that automatically drop coal down.  The smallest stoves would heat just a corner, and the largest would be found in businesses, churches, and schools.  "Four o'clock" stoves, part of the Sjobloms' collection, got their label because the wood burner was lit at 4 p.m. to warm the room by 9 p.m.

The most desirable antique stoves will be found in New England, where the wealthiest people lived.  As with most collectibles, the rarity of an item has great influence on the value.  Old stoves have pedigrees, falling into classes based on the cost and the elaborateness of their design.  And in general, the more ornate a stove, the older it probably is -- a statement illustrated by the drab, plain, boxy furnaces to which they have evolved today.

Old stoves are heavy.  The relics in the Sjobloms' home vary from 200 pounds up to 800 pounds each.  Most are at least a hundred years old.  The iron bodies were originally cast in highly polished molds carved from wood.  Information such as the foundry or company name, was often prominently molded in the metal.  It isn't unusual to find the year, production location or model numbers emplazoned on the stove's frame.  What gives many of these trophies their appeal is the metal craftsmanship of ornate patterns, gargoyles, scrolling and even "old man winter" in the glinting finishes of nickel, brass, and other shiny alloys.

Finials, the urn-shaped ornaments that top a stove, have a story all of their own.  Finials are also collector items.  And a stove will hold its value even without a finial, which explains why many stoves are missing them or feature non-original finials.