{"product_id":"androck-hand-i-sift-one-hand-flour-sifter-tulip-and-scroll-decal-with-painted-wood-handle-the-washburn-company-rockford-illinois-c-1945-1955","title":"Androck Hand-i-Sift One-Hand Flour Sifter, Tulip and Scroll Decal with Painted Wood Handle, The Washburn Company, Rockford, Illinois, c. 1945–1955","description":"  \u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA one-hand flour sifter in cream-painted tin, with a squeeze lever and a red wooden grip.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe front carries a \u003cstrong\u003eprinted decal\u003c\/strong\u003e: three red tulips rising from dark green leaves inside a scrolled yellow cartouche, with pink flourishes trailing from the base. It is the Pennsylvania-Dutch idiom that ran through American kitchens in the middle of the century — tulips, scrolls, and not much else.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe back of the body is \u003cstrong\u003eembossed straight into the metal\u003c\/strong\u003e, not printed: an oval reading \u003cstrong\u003eANDROCK\u003c\/strong\u003e, then \u003cstrong\u003eHand-i-Sift\u003c\/strong\u003e in script, and beneath it \u003cstrong\u003eMADE IN U.S. OF A.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLook inside and the mechanism is all there: a \u003cstrong\u003esingle fine mesh screen\u003c\/strong\u003e with a \u003cstrong\u003esix-arm wire agitator\u003c\/strong\u003e turning on a central hub. Squeeze the lever and the arms sweep the flour through.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe handle is \u003cstrong\u003eshaped wood painted red\u003c\/strong\u003e, held in a riveted nickel-toned bracket, worn through to bare wood along the gripping edge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe name is a merger written down.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eAndrock\u003c\/em\u003e comes from a 1917 combination of a Chicago wire goods division with the \u003cstrong\u003eAndrews Wire and Iron Works of Rockford, Illinois\u003c\/strong\u003e — \u003cem\u003eAnd\u003c\/em\u003e plus \u003cem\u003erock\u003c\/em\u003e. The parent firm traces to 1880, when Charles Washburn started the business incorporated two years later as the Wire Goods Company; after further mergers it became \u003cstrong\u003eThe Washburn Company\u003c\/strong\u003e in 1922, working out of \u003cstrong\u003eRockford, Illinois and Worcester, Massachusetts\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAndrock made the whole drawer: nut choppers, onion choppers, pastry blenders, graters, ladles, egg beaters. But the sifters are what it is remembered for, and the \u003cstrong\u003eone-hand action\u003c\/strong\u003e is why — the cook keeps a hand free for the bowl. Production ran until \u003cstrong\u003e1975\u003c\/strong\u003e, when the Worcester plant closed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe wooden handle is the dating evidence, and it is specific.\u003c\/strong\u003e Androck's pre-war kitchenware is known for bright \u003cstrong\u003eCatalin plastic handles\u003c\/strong\u003e in red, yellow and green. This sifter has no plastic anywhere — it has \u003cstrong\u003eshaped wood, painted red\u003c\/strong\u003e. Plastics went to the war effort, and wood came back into American kitchenware as the substitute; it stayed in use through the years immediately after.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe decal points the same way.\u003c\/strong\u003e Androck's 1950s work is remembered for atomic-era graphics — starbursts, boomerangs, hard geometry. This is none of that. A scrolled cartouche with tulips is the older, softer kitchen idiom that preceded it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWood rather than Catalin, and tulips rather than atoms, put it in a narrow window between the two: \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1945–1955\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne detail is the previous owner's, not the factory's: a \u003cstrong\u003esmall mark in ink on the lower front\u003c\/strong\u003e and a \u003cstrong\u003esmall punched hole\u003c\/strong\u003e beside it. The mark is not a maker's stamp and it is not legible as anything; the hole was made by hand, most likely to hang the sifter on a nail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n  \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne-hand mechanical flour sifter, squeeze-lever action\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAndrock, The Washburn Company, Rockford, Illinois. Embossed \u003cem\u003eANDROCK · Hand-i-Sift · MADE IN U.S. OF A.\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCream-painted tin body with a rolled rim, single fine mesh screen and six-arm wire agitator on a central hub, side-mounted squeeze lever, shaped red-painted wooden grip in a riveted bracket\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDecoration\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ePrinted decal — three red tulips and green foliage within a scrolled yellow cartouche with pink flourishes\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaker's name embossed into the metal at the back. Also a small illegible ink mark and a hand-punched hanging hole to the lower front, both added by a previous owner.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1945–1955. Dated on the painted wooden handle in place of Androck's pre-war Catalin plastic, and on the tulip-and-scroll decal rather than the atomic graphics that followed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eVery good and fully working. The body is sound and holds its shape, the rim is true, the screen is clean and completely intact with no tears, holes or distortion, the agitator turns freely, and the squeeze lever and its spring return work properly. The decal is bright and complete with no flaking. \u003cstrong\u003eExpect honest kitchen wear\u003c\/strong\u003e — paint loss to the wooden grip worn through to bare wood along the gripping edge, light scratching and small paint chips to the body, faint denting, and the owner's ink mark and punched hole to the lower front. No rust through, no missing parts, no repairs. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA sifter is one of the few old kitchen tools that has not been improved on, and this one still works.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe one-hand action is the whole point. Hold the bowl in one hand, squeeze with the other, and the flour goes where you are looking — which is why these outsold every crank-handle sifter on the market. Cake flour, powdered sugar over a finished tart, cocoa, matcha, a dusting over a work surface before you roll: it does all of it, and it does it better than shaking a sieve.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is also a good-looking object doing nothing. Cream, red, yellow and green is a full kitchen palette in one small tin, and the tulips read from across a room. On an open shelf, a windowsill, a hutch or the back of a counter it earns its space; it also makes a very good small vessel for wooden spoons, dried flowers or a bunch of herbs hung to dry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor a gift it is easy and specific: a baker, someone setting up a first kitchen, or anyone who likes their tools to have been made by a company that took its name from two towns.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA note on care, and it is the one rule that kills flour sifters. \u003cstrong\u003eNever wash it, never soak it, and never put it in a dishwasher.\u003c\/strong\u003e Water gets into the seams and behind the screen where it cannot dry, and it rusts the mesh from the inside out; it will also lift a printed decal and swell a wooden handle off its rivets.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eClean it dry. Tap it out, brush the screen with a dry pastry brush, and leave it. If something sticky gets on the outside, wipe that spot with a barely damp cloth and dry it immediately, keeping the cloth off the decal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStore it somewhere dry and open rather than sealed in a bag, sift only dry ingredients through it, and do not put the wooden handle near heat.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48041038282857,"sku":"VE-0706","price":58.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_2045.jpg?v=1789131035","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/androck-hand-i-sift-one-hand-flour-sifter-tulip-and-scroll-decal-with-painted-wood-handle-the-washburn-company-rockford-illinois-c-1945-1955","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}