‘Nipper’ Stove
The ‘Nipper’ stove as it was fondly dubbed, remained in production from circa 1900-1940s by the ‘Caledonian Stove and Iron Works’. It is an unusually small stove at just 21″ wide and for this reason had a special market. Boats, Yachts, Caravans, Cabins and even Camping was the intended use for this little range and it certainly found favor with many.
They are compact in size and weight but due to this do have quite a small oven and grate area.
They can be found in vintage caravans and shepherds huts and other applications where the facility to cook was required in addition to a heat source.
The early examples had some nice moldings to the panels and door while the later types were very plain and smooth in appearance. They were available in bare iron or vitreous enameled and could be set directly on a hearth or stand on legs.
In later years the Nipper has found its way into the back cabins of narrowboats although they were really too small to find favor with working boatmen in the day.
During the 1980’s the Nipper had a second wind and was reproduced with some changes and renamed the ‘Premier’ but manufacture of these stoves and since stopped. They were for all intents and purposes a pretty poor copy of an excellent little stove.
Both the Nipper and Premier have since found favor with a great deal of people and have become very sought after.
Osborne Restoration will be manufacturing a high quality replica of the Nipper stove later this year. We also offer a full restoration service for original Nipper and Premier stoves and can supply spare parts for both.