Found It !! My 'Royal Bride' Restoration Thread

After signing up earlier this year for some help with my stove I think I caught the bug. The antique base burner bug.
Turns out after scouring Craigs list all winter looking for the "ONE" it was no further than my back yard. I have a gentleman in the neighborhood that makes a living selling odd things. I happened stumble across an antique stove that I saw and inquired.

Yep, it's for sale
Yep, it's in my price range.
And yes it will need to be fully refinished. Being the end of the heating season for me this gives me plenty of time to break her down and get to know the inter workings of such a piece of art. All of the nickel is in good shape albeit a bit dirty. Fire pot is in what appears to be VG condition.
Best part is it looks like it is all there, aside from a magazine.
EDITING FOR CORRECT MODEL
It's Royal Bride #14
Not a Golden bride #14


I have been unable to find any info on this exact model in my searches. Only thing I do find is Norcans Bride and read the whole 64+/- pages.

Well boys what do you think?

I'd say you did well, and saved big time in transportation costs !!

In your photo, isn't the rectangualar tube on the right behind the stove the magazine? it looks like a magazine with the holes
around the upper perimeter.

How about a photo with all her clothes and bonnet on her? she looks a bit 'naked' without the upper nickel bonnet.

What type of grates does she have?? got a photo of the fire pot ?

Read this thread: Lehigh Oak

I describe the basics for a stove rebuild. Try the 'bowl cleaner' trick on your nickel, see if it
cleans up..

Looks like a nice stove.

Greg L

HOLY MOLY, I think your onto something. I also am realizing that I must have gotten to excited and thought it was a golden bride. Looking at the pictures it is a Royal Bride, DUH. No wonder I can't find any info.

No more pics til I get her home. The fire box looks just like the Norcans Golden. Rotating grates are a bit more robust, hard to describe but look like they will jamb easily (key word being looks). When moving them the center opens up like a clam shell.

Wanna Bee

Congrats on your find!! And welcome to the world of BB's!

Excellent find!

Very good find WB.
I will be back as soon as possible to send photos from a stove catalog from 1899, Bride Stoves and Ranges, page 108 and 109 are for the Royal Bride, Full Reversible Flue...Double Heater, I will scann that but just later.

Here are some infos, needs a double clic to enlarge the photos.

Damb...another one found before I got mine!

How much did you pay for it exactly? Ive been making offers on some baseburners from NY to Maine
but these people think they have stoves made of gold
Im hoping summer brings some better luck to me

Glad you found yours bro cant wait to see the complete brake down with photo's...

Great find there! Can't wait to see and read the progression to full former glory. Mike

Thank You Nortcan! Right click save as LOL.

Amazingly from the photos the stove looks to be 100% complete and original.

A full tear down and rebuild will be started in the next month or so. I have a few to many projects going at this time to get elbow deep in the stove restoration. I will get a full picture preview of the stove in the next week or so. Easter weekend is going to put a damper on it.

Congrats on the find! It will be a beautiful stove once restored. I know how frustrating it is looking for a base burner and not finding anything...but, will have an announcement coming soon.

OK, I finally got a chance to go pick up my new Bride. My "Royal Bride"

I took the time to re-assemble her after the trip to make sure:
1) all of the parts made it home
2) see what parts are going to need fitting.
3) Take pictures, everyone loves pictures

The bad:
The fire pot on it looks to be just about capable of containing a fire.
Are fire pots a std size?
It is just a 14" dia. bucket shaped fire pot.
Do you think one of the stove restoration shops would have new fire pots in stock?
If not I'm going to have a local shop cast me a new one and a spare.

The final (or top) has seen better days, I will do my best to save it. It looks as if someone painted it {barf} gold{barf}

Nickel finishes are hit or miss. Some places it is in fantastic condition, others aren't so good. Eventually I will send all of the "not so good" pieces out for plating

The good:
The cast iron exterior is in remarkable condition for a 100+ year old stove. I think some elbow grease and stove polish are all that will be required to bring the outside of her back to her former glory.

Here are some of the worst pictures I could take





I will start the full tare down in the next few days. And take some better before pictures... Wish me luck!

One other thing, why can't I change/edit the title of this thread? I don't want to start another one for the full restoration.

One of the tricks passed on to me for cleaning up some of the parts was to use Lysol toilet bowl cleaner. It takes any rust off the metal and it helps clean up the nickel. I bought a plastic masonry pan from Lowes' that was big enough to put parts in and used 000 steel wool with the cleaner (wear rubber gloves). It really did surprise me as to how well it worked. I hope once you get her torn down and cleaned up, it won't be in as bad of condition that you described.

lookin good... I hope to have some time soon so we will both be doing the same thing... (that looks like my Miller Cricket in the background )

You can PM Rich and send him a link to this thread and ask him to change the title to read something like "Refurbishing a Royal Bride BaseBurner"

Photog200 wrote:One of the tricks passed on to me for cleaning up some of the parts was to use Lysol toilet bowl cleaner. It takes any rust off the metal and it helps clean up the nickel. I bought a plastic masonry pan from Lowes' that was big enough to put parts in and used 000 steel wool with the cleaner (wear rubber gloves). It really did surprise me as to how well it worked. I hope once you get her torn down and cleaned up, it won't be in as bad of condition that you described.

I'll give that a try.
The nickel is not to terribly bad... there will be plating in my future though. This is going to become a center piece in my home. It needs to be perfect.