Cast Iron, 7 x 5" with 3 feet.
On face: RINGEN STOVE COMPANY
DIVISION AMERICAN STOVE CO.
ST. LOUIS
QUICK MEAL
On reverse: 1561
This rare sad iron stand sold on eBay for $155.50 on 2/4/12 after 16 Bids. What's so unusual about it? Well, for starters, it was an advertising giveaway from the Ringen Stove Company of St. Louis, maker of the "Quick Meal" line of wood burning and gas Stoves. According to the information below the stand probably dates to the turn of the century. As quoted from Wikipedia:
"In the 1850s, an immigrant to the United States John Ringen began a tinshop in St. Louis, Missouri. His business prospered and in 1870, he took in a partner, George August Kahle, who had immigrated to America in 1867. The business sold housewares, washing machines and cooking stoves they called "Quick Meals". In 1881, George Kahle persuaded his brothers-in-law, Charles and Louis Stockstrom to set up a shop to make stoves. These four principals then organized two corporations, the Ringen Stove Company and the Quick Meal Stove Company."
"Quick Meal manufactured the stoves with Ringen Stove handling the entire output of Quick Meal's production. The phenomenal growth of these two companies during the 1880s and 1890s led to the merger of eight other stove companies in St. Louis, Chicago and Cleveland in 1901 to form the American Stove Company."
Now, to learn about actually using a Quick Meal stove,
Industrialist Cuisine: Slow Cooking on a Quick Meal
from the blog Jet City Gastrophysics.
