drgary wrote:Lucio's wonderful web site that shows some of his collection is linked on the Orphan Espresso site. The way he puts it shows his devotion to collecting, "take a look at my blog, few lever machines, but full of beauty and love: http://caffettiere.blogspot.com/ ."

Yeah! Devotion is the right word.
"to pre-serve and protect".
Duchessa is now on my wish list.

peacecup wrote:Of course, everything has its price. Considering you can make equally good espresso (more or less) with a Ponte Vecchio Export or an Elektra, what is the point of keeping the Duchessa?

Jack, I don't know. You usually write poetry, but this hard headed prose? If owned this one it would only leave my hands if I were starving. Even if I only used it rarely, I would savor it as a work of art and as an example of a kind of craftsmanship that one only occasionally encounters now.

Hal's right about the craftsmanship. The pieces are all precisely fitted. And there are amazing aesthetic touches like the power light. When it's off, it's green. It's actually a thick green glass, perhaps hand-blown. When the power's on, there's an eerie amber light that shines through, and you can only see the glass is green if looking through the thickest part from above. So that's all done without electronic gimmickry. The power regulation device under the machine looks like it's industrial grade along with the spring loaded lever that activates it, and that has the feel of a telegraph key. I even wonder if it shares common parts with old telegraphs.

This is my first collector's machine. When I first had the chance to get it and hadn't seen it, I was considering selling it to do a dream upgrade, perhaps to an Elektra T1 or something of that class. But once I had a chance to really look it over, I became more interested in it as a work of industrial art, something unique to be treasured and enjoyed. My curiosity also began to extend beyond the machine so that I now want to know more about who made it and the story of why those machines are so rare.

I can make really delicious espressos with my other equipment, not the least of which is the Europiccola, which provides an intimate experience of espresso making by hand. And I do have it paired with an excellent Super Jolly grinder.