Lady Duchessa

Recently I was scrolling Craigslist and saw someone trying to determine whether the machine she was trying to sell was a La Pavoni. I responded, trying to help out and answered some of her questions. She appreciated my help and said she had another vintage machine. I asked what that was, of course, and got this photo back!



I looked into it and found out that this was a very rare Lady Duchessa, about which little is known, and asked around to learn that it may be valuable as a collector's machine, so I openly shared what I learned. She responded that she and her family appreciated my help and were willing to let me give this machine a home because I obviously appreciate these things so much, and she offered it at the price she paid years ago in an antique store, an act of generosity.

So tonight I went by and added this amazing piece of espresso engineering to my collection. I don't know much about her yet other than that she was made sometime in the early 1960s by a company that renamed itself Ducale and went on to specialize in automated espresso vending machines, which they do to this day. I'll post as I learn more. Here's the only thread a found that shows a machine anything like it. http://coffeegeek.com/forums/espresso/machines/380671?Page=1

My good camera is packed until we move into our new home at the end of this month. So here's the best I can do for now, some iPhone pictures. The build quality, by the way, is like a '57 Chevy. Solid, heavy cast metal, simple, built to last forever. The lever has a strong spring. It even comes with a metal tamper inscribed with the brand name. The previous owner had it converted to 220v for Europe and was using it there to pull shots until two years ago when they came to this country. Other than changing the power cord, it looks like this lady needs little or no servicing!

But what I'm really appreciating is the beauty of this mid-century work of art. It's the espresso machine that was designed for the Jetsons!






Later Add: A few days later I changed out the power cord and was thrilled to see that she came to life! Here's that thread: Lady Duchessa Help Changing Power Cord - Success!


...split from Lever Espresso Machine Gallery by moderator...

Oh man, green with envy of course but also curious as to how it will all turn out when pulling a shot.....some people have all the luck!

1+ We need a "green with envy" emoticon. When I first saw your post about the Lady Duchessa I could not believe my eyes (and your luck). San Francisco has some espresso gems. What a gorgeous machine! Congratulations!

!!!

Hey Guys,

I won't keep this one to myself. I've got a friend who's an engineer very comfortable with small appliances and will replace the power cord with the 110v that was originally intended within the next week or so. At that point I'll try and pull a shot. Given its recent history, look and feel, I expect it to work just fine. By early next month we'll have moved into our home, I'll have my camera back and will take detailed pictures to share with you, maybe in a separate thread. Some of you may not have noticed that this find spurred me to open a thread on evaluating collectors' machines, here: How to Evaluate Collectible Espresso Machines?

I wonder if the parts are common to other machines of that era? The portafilter is 51mm and its baskets are interchangeable with my humble millennium Europiccola. But the quality of its parts is really something. You can all see the design and manufacturing quality of the name plate. When I accidentally hit the single basket sitting on my granite counter, it rang like a Tibetan bell. It looks machined, not stamped. The spring lever has the heavy duty feel of commercial equipment. The knobs give that impression too. And I've just noticed that it has what appears to be a manometer bolted almost invisibly behind the group head, with the brand name Duchessa, and a scale from 0 to 3. The casing around the boiler is cast and about 1/4 inch thick. It has the solid feel of an old canister vacuum cleaner (shared parts? sorry! ) . My impression is that it's built to be extraordinarily easy to service. See this photo inside the boiler, which has a cap almost the full width so you can get easy access. The cap itself has another nice detail. Inside the knob it reads "Acqua Duchessa," again in a nice script. Inside the boiler you can see the steam and water tap, the manometer port, the element at the bottom, and I presume, the thermostat. There's a toggle switch on the front right (see front view above) that appears to relate to its electrical functioning. Maybe Doug can tell us more about that.





In other words, this looks like a serious effort by people who knew what they were doing to manufacture a quality piece of equipment intended for export, given its hybrid English/Italian name. It seems its designers applied their talents in a different direction when they began to innovate automated espresso making. I've written to the company to see if they can tell me more. See: http://www.ducale.com/chi_siamo/GB_chi_siamo.asp

Anyway, I'll post more soon and would appreciate any help you can give in helping me trace its origins and history, if that information is still available! The only missing piece is the plate that fit under the electrical wiring at the base, as you can see by its absence and a screw tap. A replacement facing should be easy to fashion. As you can see, the serial number 10257RO and "V 110" are stamped on the bottom. What do any of you think of the toggle switch and control, with its dial-in adjustment? The set screw seems to adjust temperature and is labeled for centigrade readings roughly ranging from 50 to 150. Its connection to the toggle suggests manual control of temperature for steaming.

Very nice! These appear to be different models or a product in development as there's no provision on mine for a sight glass and yours doesn't have a toggle switch. The cases, group heads and boiler caps appear identical. Your water tray grille looks different and perhaps custom-cast, where mine appears to be made from existing sheet metal grid material. What are the serial and model numbers on the bottom of yours? This might give us some clues.