Atlantic Precision Brass Electric Food Warmer on Stand, c. 1955–1975

The Piece

A small electric food warmer by Atlantic Precision Works, set into a brass cradle that does all the decorative work. The cradle is a single circular rail carried on three cabriole legs with pad feet, with two flat scrolled handles rising at the sides. It is the Queen Anne vocabulary borrowed wholesale and bent in wire, which is exactly the kind of thing American hostess ware did in the middle of the century, and it reads far better on a table than its modest function suggests.

The warming element sits inside the rail as a stepped and ribbed brass body with a matte gray stone colored disc set flush into the top. The underside is turned in concentric rings and stamped in the center. A white vinyl cord runs out through a molded grommet at the rim to a flat two prong plug. The brass is bright with light tarnish in the recesses, and the underside carries a handful of small scratches and a dull spot or two from use.

History & Provenance

The stamping on the base reads Atlantic Precision Works, Inc., number 101, 115 volts AC DC, 38 watts, do not immerse in water. Atlantic Precision Works is best known for its Warm-O-Tray line of domestic electric warming trays and hot plates, which it produced in a range of numbered models. The company registered WARM-O-TRAY with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on an application filed February 26, 1970, covering electric heating trays for domestic use, which places the firm squarely in that trade. This piece carries the company name and a model number rather than the trade name.

The dating rests on what the object itself shows rather than on the trademark, which records a filing and not a date of manufacture. The AC DC rating is a holdover from the period when some American municipalities still carried direct current mains, and it survived on simple resistive appliances long after it mattered. The flexible vinyl cord and the two prong plug are postwar. The thirty eight watt rating is very low, enough to hold a dish at temperature and not nearly enough to cook, which is the signature of the hostess warming plate rather than a cooking appliance. The cabriole legs and the scrolled handles belong to the same mid-century entertaining idiom. Taken together the range given is what the evidence will carry.

A word on the electrical side, stated plainly because it matters. The cord, the plug and the element are original and have not been tested, and wiring of this age is past its service life. The piece is offered as a decorative object. Anyone intending to plug it in should have it inspected and rewired by a qualified electrician first.

Product Details

Why It Belongs in Your Home

Forget the cord for a moment and look at the shape. A brass ring on three cabriole legs, lifted off the surface, with a pale disc floating inside it. That is a pedestal, and it will do for a candle, a small plant, a stack of rings, a bar of soap by a sink or a single good object you want raised half an inch above everything else. Brass at this scale is a punctuation mark rather than a statement, and the legs give it enough formality to sit on a dressing table or a bar cart without looking like hardware.

It also carries its period honestly. This is an object from the era when entertaining at home meant small specialized equipment in bright metal, bought to be seen on the table. Most of it was thrown away once the fashion turned. The ones that survived are the ones that were pretty enough to keep, and this is one of those.