How nice is this? We restored this pretty little Belle Portable a while ago now and sent it to France. It is now in use and earning its keep in a restored French cottage.
Category: Belle Portable Ranges
‘Belle Portable’ ranges are the most common of the portable ranges and were in production from the late 19th century to the mid 20th. They were manufactured by Jones and Campbell, of Falkirk at their ‘Torwood foundry’ near by to the ‘Larbert foundry’ of Dobbie Frobes Ltd where Dermont Campbel was once the cashier.
The company was established in 1887 and the first cupola was blown in and tapped in 1888. The first ‘Belle Portable’ design was registered in 1894 and these early examples have several defining characteristics including decorative fretwork on their trivets and rounded ends to the strap hinges on the oven door.
Later ranges had ‘Removable ovens’ with brass screws fixing in the front panel to prevent them seizing. However they are invariably always seized!
‘Belle Portable’ ranges can be found in all sorts of shapes and sizes and have proven themselves to be of a very robust design.
O.J.Osborne & Co manufacture many spare parts for these ranges and always keep unrestored examples in stock. Customers restorations are taken on and can be shipped anywhere in the Uk.
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Belle Portable range restored
Belle Portable ranges such as these were the most prolific of their type and were manufactured well into the mid 20th century. Whilst the iron founding arm of the company has since been retired the company of Jones & Campbell is still are large concern in Scotland and has been in family ownership for well over 100 years
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Belle Portable Range on its way back home to Ireland
This brilliant little Belle Portable Range manufactured by Jones & Campbell of Falkirk circa 1920 has been fully restored at our workshops. It arrived in a real mess but is now in A1 condition and ready for another 100 years of service. It has been shipped back to its owners in Ireland just in time for winter!
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Queen (“Queenie”) stove restored for gypsy caravan
Here’s a lovely little Queen stove we have just completed restoring. These heating stoves are often affectionately referred to as “Queenie” and we used in all sorts of applications. This one is going into a bowtop gypsy caravan. We’ll post pictures of it installed as soon as the work is complete.
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Belle Portable restored
Here we have a Belle Portable dating from circa 1920. These ranges were manufactured by Jones & Campbell in there thousands and were the companies most popular line throughout much of the early 20th century.
This one has been painstakingly restored and is now ready to go back home where we have been assured it will be in daily use!
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1890s ‘Utilis’ Kitchen range for Gressenhall museum
Here is a picture our client at Gressenhall Museum and Workhouse sent us after they had put back all the period decorations on the kitchen range we restored for them a short while ago. This range is used regularly when the museum is open and I’m told they even teach visiting schools how to cook on it!
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Instagram
We now have an Instagram account that is updated every few days and shows more of the process pictures that are not covered on this site. You can view these feed on the bottom of this page or by searching for OsborneRestorationLtd on Instagram.
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Belle Portable
Here we have another Belle Portable for sale. Fully restored and awaiting it’s new home!
