The collector: Jay Raymond, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, US. Jay is currently an author, at work on his second book. He has previously worked as a heating system mechanic, a building inspector, a teacher, a maitre'd and a handyman.

The collection: Irons.  Until 2007 I collected only streamlined irons: In the U.S. this meant irons made between 1932 and 1952.  In 2007 I sold that collection of about 180 irons.  I now collect electric irons made between 1890-1925. 

The story behind the collection...

It began with the purchase in the early 1980s of a box of ten old electric irons at a church rummage sale. Several were from the streamlined era and these caught my eye. I didn't work hard to find more until about ten years later when, on vacation far from home, I found an antique dealer with a collection of  forty streamlined irons. I bought that collection and began to seriously look for more. Two years later I found another dealer with a collection, of sixty irons: I bought that collection, too.   

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