This prompted me to look back through the photos of Kent Bakke's collection. He has two LoLos and they both have the 'shovel handle' type lever and the valves are covered as on Tom's. The VA Supervat type group definitely seems to be an outlier.

In any event, Henk's collection is amazing. What a treat to get a virtual tour.

Thanks for sharing that video Tom A very educational tour!

Thanks for sharing that video.

I always thought a coffee-table style book on the history of espresso (or even just brewing coffee) would be a worthwhile endeavor.

You have to love the styles, even if they don't fit your own personal tastes.

Prescott CR wrote:I always thought a coffee-table style book on the history of espresso (or even just brewing coffee) would be a worthwhile endeavor.

Some books are already available and much more complete ones will come out in the future. In the mean time, you can check the Cafe(o)blogue.

grog wrote:The VA Supervat type group definitely seems to be an outlier.

If it's authentic, this will be a great piece of information: it will mean that La San Marco first adopted the Arduino technology before creating their own.

Apart from Langkemper/Maltoni and Kent Bakke's collections, there is a great collection at the Caffe Cagliari museum (with a Lollobrigida too).

Ah, yes, I went by there when visiting WOC. Very nice, though I already knew a lot of them since I bought my Linea Mini at Henk's company Espresso Service West. If you ever happen to be in the Hague you can see a lot of these machines in the office spaces and service department adjacent to the shop if they have time to gave you a small tour .

I do remember Henk and I swapping photos of his machine and IIRC there was another Lollo with the VA group.

It is funny about the Marte being his first, I know quite a few people who got into it from seeing a Marte - I think Enrico started with a Marte as well.

Paul, from the Cagliari museum collection, on the Lollobrigida it shows what appears to be a cold water tap that might also function as a boiler drain, on the lower left. Do you think that was how they were all made? Mine didn't have a chromed line. Just a cut off or broken off copper line connected to that valve.