The Antique of the Week

Forty years after the invention of the Easy-Bake Oven, a boy has mastered the classic toy that has been marketed to little girls for as long as most of us can remember. John McCune, a 9 year-old master baker from Valley Center, Kansas was named the Easy-Bake 2004 "Chef of the Year" this week, after baking his tempting "Easy-Bake Carrot Cake," concluding the search for America's best child chef. But long before Kenner's Easy-Bake Oven was first introduced at the 1964 Toy Fair, there were miniature electric ovens.

Coincidentally, the Antique of the Week at the Rednersville Country Store is an Empire electric toy stove by The Metal Ware Corp., patented 1924, pictured above, from the Antique Toys Collection of our Gallery of Antiques & Collectibles. This miniature electric stove, in perfect working condition, is one of the most talked-about antique toys in our store. Most toy collectors are very familiar with the Easy-Bake Oven, a classic toy for almost half a century, but a similar toy almost 80 years old is, indeed, a rare antique that is very collectible.