Thanks for all of the thoughts guys. I'm honored to have this kettle, and blown away that there are still kettle colors out there which we haven't yet seen.
As far as the back story, unfortunately there isn't much to say. This kettle came from central Minnesota. The guy who had it was "just getting rid of someone else's junk" to quote him. He had no attachment to it and didn't know any history on it. He didn't have any legs or wheels for it. I'd love to hear about any research someone has on these old 18's. (Craig, thanks for the confirmation on the '56-57 timeline, that's what I had come to as well!)
Before commencing with the build, I did do some research on wheel and triangle color. A few of the 50's era brochures that were found showed it could have originally came with white wheels and/or an aluminum ash-pan/triangle. Here are some snaps from a Weber Bros era brochure:
Some minor mock-ups with those finishes we done, but ultimately the gold pan and red wheels looked best with the lady-bug orange color of the kettle. A good friend and fellow forum member helped sourcing the wheels and choosing the rose-gold paint used on the pan. Is it a correct build? We probably will never know.
There is talk of this kettle possibly being a "Traveler". Research before the build couldn't find anything definitive. The leg sockets do line up such that the bowl handles are oriented correctly, so it was built as a standard kettle with wheels and triangle.
Here are my questions:
1) How does a kettle from the mid-1950's survive in such a clean/unused state?
2) Who owned this kettle and how did it get to the rural countryside of MN?
3) How did a kettle get produced with a color and texturized finish we've never seen before?
4) Why is there no talk of this color in any brochures even though there are custom colors shown?
Topic: Orange and Black Speckled Weber Bros 18 (pic heavy) (Read 14663 times)