Old Tyme Fans in Seattle??

[jonasclark]

I have a book called the Woodstove Directory. My copy is from 1981 (I was two years old) and I have no idea where or why my parents got it, since I didn't get my interest in fireplaces until I was five or six and we had it before that. We never had a stove or fireplace, no chimney at all. It's basically a huge catalog with two entries per page consisting of a photo and a big blurb from the manufacturer, and it has section for wood, coal, inserts, furnaces, accessories, etc. It's over 360 pages long and, by now, pretty ragged, since it has Sears Catalog-thin pages. But it has two fan ads. One is for Encon (Crompton-Greaves). The other is kind of odd, and I welcome information - I'm shocked that not only did I not notice the listed location as a kid, but I didn't notice it as an adult until yesterday!

Seattle, Washington. I live ten miles from Seattle. But the company name is also confusing to me.

I don't have a scan or photo, so I'll retype the short ad here. At the top is a photo of what appears to be, in all details, a Hunter Original, 52". The photo is black-and-white, and the fan is polished metal (bottom plate/blade irons) and a medium-toned color elsewhere, which looks too dark to be white and too light to be the dark Hunter brown I'm used to. It has wood blades with cane inserts. It does seem to be a Hunter and not a Classic Fan or other knock-off, at least in outward appearance; it has C-shaped blade irons and curved bracket arms.

Ad blurb written by the manufacturer is as follows:

The Original Old Tyme Ceiling Fans have been swirling away heat and stale air since 1903. Using as little power as a light bulb, the Old Tyme Fans are available in a wide variety of styles and colors from the Great American Ceiling Fan Company.

You can cool your warmest room during the summer months or enjoy the benefits of heat savings during the winter months. Variable speed fans are a most efficient way of reclaiming heat from your ceiling. They are easily installed on eight foot ceilings. Other quality ceiling fan lines with various wood blade and accessory combinations are also available.

For more information about the Cadillac of ceiling fans, write for the name of your nearest dealer. For fast information or assistance, call our tollfree number---1-800-426-4621.

Specifications:
Blade Lengths: 36, 48, 52 and 56 in.
Blade Materials: Oak, walnut, cane, white cane
Motor Finishes: Brass, antique brass, antique copper, copper, chrome, brown and white.
Blade Holders: Finished to match motors
Optional Light Kits: Multiple lights, Tiffanys, single globes, speed controls available

Importer:
Great American Fan Company
902 Industry Drive No. 22
Seattle, Washington 98188
206-575-4164; Toll free outside WA 800-426-4621

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When a product listed is being MADE by the company whose blurb it is, it says Manufacturer. This says Importer, which I assume means these MUST be knock-offs. I've never heard of Hunter Originals - 80s ones - in 56", nor have I heard of them in chrome or copper.

902 Industry Drive is a business park in Tukwila, a city bordering Seattle on its south end, which is (and always has been) mostly commercial: a mall and countless strip malls and shopping centers, surrounded by industrial and business parks and warehouses. The buildings in this park are pretty nondescript, but they're 70s vintage.

Does anyone know more? What are the chances they snagged a photo of a real Hunter, or were there copies that looked exactly like them?

The Encon ad, by the way, shows a large wood-and-cane-bladed High Breeze type, white, with an ornate four-arm light kit having frosted ruffle shades on ornate C-shaped arms. Anyobne who knows Encon CG fans well knows exactly what fan and light I mean. Encon also had several narrow page-edge magazine ads in the 80s featuring this fan, one of which is next to my computer. That was a childhood fan for me, and I have the fan, but I still haven't found that grand light kit for it...!

[Deleted]

Jonas, I hope you can scan it!

[Cole S.]

I would love to see a scan, or even a picture of it if nothing else. I think they very well could have snagged a Hunter photo and if their fans looked close no one would ever know the difference, but without seeing it it's really hard to say.

[jonasclark]

Well, here it is! I don't have a scanner, and I'm shocked that my digicam got the detail so well - at full resolution, you can see the printing dots!! I think the necessary detail has held up here.

To my untrained eye, it looks like a Hunter Original. Several others here can surely spot minute differences I can't see; I'm always amazed at how good you guys are at IDing fans by design. So, what's the vote: is this indeed a knock-off, or is it a photo of an actual Hunter?



I'm assuming no one has ever heard of the Great American Fan Company, and if they were importing and ran the biz out of a small industrial complex (the 902 buildings, four in number, fill one block, one story tall, with about fifteen businesses total, and each is just an office, no warehouse space) perhaps they were one of many companies importing the same knock-offs under various names.

[JW]

Sure looks like an Original to me... perhaps the lighter motor color is due to it either being repainted or having the contrast adjusted so parts wouldn't be drowned out in the black and white photo.

Also if the fans said Original Old Tyme, wouldn't they pretty much be Hunter since that's what they called them for ages? Yes I know there were import companies called Casablanca, etc.

[jonasclark]

"Import companies called Casablanca"? I think I need to hear that story.

That's what confused me: Hunter used "Original Old Tyme," didn't they? Like I said, the bottom parts of the ads say "Manufacturer" if the listed firm actually made the item, and "Importer" if they didn't, but I don't know how strictly that protocol was followed. If their main office was in a Seattle-area industrial park, unless they had (not mentioned) warehouses nearby, I get the feeling it might've been an importer. If it WAS Hunter, I wonder if these guys were a reseller... Hunter did pecan rather than oak blades, too, am I right?

Whatever these are, I'll take a 36" in chrome and another in antique copper, thanks! Cane blades for both, though I'll trade away one set and have clear plexi cut for that chrome one!!

[vanhalen5150]

ADAPTAIR hubs... and a lot of other NOS stuff I have found, were made in taiwan. Imagine my surprise when I opened a box and changed out some blades and found a made in taiwan sticker on each blade... under the blade bracket. Deceptive.. I have disassembled many robbins and myers made originals and found TAIWAN stamped on the armature and the housing. Made in USA? Hardly. I would question whether this would explain the fans like the fantique ones.... and tyat Commander catalog from back in the day which used images straight out of a hunter catalog. I'd like to hear Perrey's opinion on this though.

[Deleted]

A lot of US companies had the parts imported, and assembled the fans here. As long as the fans were boxed here you could claim "Made in the USA".

[jonasclark]

...which makes my Grand Duchess 'birdwing' fan interesting since it's clearly labeled "Made in Taiwan," yet was imported and sold by a firm in Texas. Though maybe they didn't even pack and box them?

[Deleted]

Almost all imported fans are/were sold by companies headquartered here. The issue is if they actually have factories of any kind here.

[jonasclark]

Nobody seems to know, at least as far as the Eagle Fan Corp. The box lists them in Lufkin, Texas, and lists a showroom in Dallas; a guy on the AFCA boards says the company was in College Inn?, Texas.