Toselli Locomotive Coffee Maker c. 1864
Jean Baptiste Toselli an Italian architect living in Paris took out a patent (number 51920) on a "cafetière-locomotive" in 1861. He commenced the manufacture of them in 1864. The Toselli locomotive coffee maker was in effect a balanced syphon coffee maker. The ceramic boiler is divided into two. Coffee grounds are put down the funnel and water is put in the rear compartment in the centre hole with a small funnel closed by a surprisingly well fitting, matching ceramic plug. The water was then boiled using a small spirit burner and the pressure of the steam forced most of the boiling water through the glass syphon into the front compartment where it met the coffee grounds. Continuing to boil the small remaining quantity of water remaining in the rear sent steam bubbling through the coffee and out of the funnel. Extinguishing or removing the spirit burner then allows the steam in the rear compartment to condense thereby creating a partial vacuum and the brown coffee is sucked back through the glass syphon to the rear compartment. (There should be a small metal rose attached to the end of the syphon in the front compartment to prevent the coffee grounds from being sucked back - this is missing). Coffee is served by opening the tap at the front of the train. As a party piece at the end of a dinner party the Toselli coffee maker was supreme. Guests could be entertained by the host (or butler), putting in the coffee grounds and water and then lighting the spirit burner and waiting with anticipation until the water boiled and passed through the glass syphon from the rear to the front compartment followed by steam coming out of the funnel. The flame was extinguished and the guests watched as the brown coffee passed back to the rear compartment again through the glass tube. Finally the train could be pushed on its revolving wheels from guest to guest who could each serve him or herself with coffee from the tap in the front connected by a pipe on the underneath of the boiler to the rear compartment. Behind the boiler is a further ceramic box and lid which holds sugar, incised underneath on the unglazed ceramic is 478p. Under the boiler it is signed Toselli à Paris. Several locomotive coffee maker were made by different individuals in the nineteenth century but most were 'one-offs' only the Toselli was made in any quantity but the numbers made must have been very small. The evidence for this, apart from their being an expensive luxury, is that no two identical examples have apparently been found, which indicates that they were made on an individual basis. Rare even when made, some have undoubtedly been lost or broken over the past 150 years and surviving examples are seriously rare. I have seen only one offered at auction many years ago. There is a further example, incomplete, in the Bramah coffee Museum (see "Coffee Makers 300 years of art and design" by Edward and Joan Bramah) and I am aware of three others (all partially incomplete) in private collections around the world. There are also a few examples in museums. In total I doubt fifty examples survive, more likely less than half that number and perhaps no more than a dozen survive. The Tocelli on offer here has no burner and is missing its rose and the "safety valve". (I doubt a safety valve is actually necessary as the pressure to be contained is only that required to lift water a few centimetres from one compartment to the other!) Otherwise it is perfect and near mint - it would appear to have been fired up only once or twice from the 'soot' under the boiler. The ceramic parts are in perfect condition no chips or cracks and no repairs. The metal carriage is likewise in good condition. Being signed by Toselli is also apparently rare. Height 14" (35.5 cm) Length 13.5" (34 cm) width 5" (12.5 cm)
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Toselli Locomotive Coffee Maker 1
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