Vintage Pedestal Fan Find

[JT]

Found this fan over the weekend.

Brand symbol looks kinda like GE but it is "SE"
6 blades construction looks to be early 1910-1920
Oscillating movement looks like it is later than 1920
Cover guard wires forming a straight cross around the center seems 1930

Owner told me that he acquired it in Singapore many years ago.

Wondering if anyone can provide more info about it....
Anyone has other vintage pedestal fan to share?

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

Welcome to The Lounge!

I'm not an expert in fans but I have a couple old desk top jobs. The pedestal versions, I would imagine, are more suited to industrial situations.

Very nice piece. :eusa_clap

 

[Vintage lover]

That is nice. I wish I could find one of those locally.

 

[zetwal]

I echo these sentiments. Welcome to Lounge and kudos!

 

[Atomic]

I haven't seen too many tall fans like that. Good find! I don't believe I've ever seen another SE fan before, sorry I can't be any help. It looks great though and works, so all in all its a win. Is it very noisy or is it fairly quiet when running?

 

[ScionPI2005]

Welcome to the Lounge! That's a very nice find! I currently don't have any pedestal fans, but do have a few vintage desk fans from approximately the 30's.

 

[JT]

Can this be a vintage fake???

I am almost sure the SE symbol was purposely made to be very similar to the famous GE one. The previous owner thought it was GE. I thought it was GE initially.... not until I took another closer look. It runs super quiet. I keep it in my living room running low to help circulating my AC ;-)

Thanks to all the welcomes and hope to share more findings soon.

 

[JT]

SE = Singapore Electric

I was told by someone that this fan indeed is GE made but sold as export to the Singapore market under the brand "Singapore Electric" or SE. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[JT]

More info from a wise one.... These are common in Asia. Not sure what connection they had with GE but they are obvious made from the same castings as GE. Maybe GE exported them. I do know that GE exported identical fans as marketed for America to Britain and Canada and labeled BTH (British Thompson-Houston) or GEC (General Electric of Canada), and am pretty sure they did the SE as well for Singapore Electric, but I do not have any documentation to back that up. I know GE made and sold fans to both Hunter and Westinghouse for them to market with their own tags but otherwise same fans as General Electric.

 

[Forgotten Man]

Very interesting piece! I wouldn't be surprised to know that GE did export goods to other countries. The cage is very interesting seeing it starts out as an "S" cage then goes into a cross towards the center... the color looks to be GE "Pullman Green" and the blades are the same shape as GE brass blades... I dig it, very cool old fan!

Floor standing fans such as that SE were seen mostly in garages, offices and so forth... but, depending on the size, it would have also been offered to home use.

Let me do some asking and I may turn up more info regarding that fan... very neat!

 

[Forgotten Man]

Well, I did some digging and yep, it is Singapore Electric... hows about that huh?

 

[JT]

Thanks Forgotten Man. Any additional info to date this unit? It has no label, model or serial numbers. Another piece of interesting information is the plug is not typical of Singapore style/230V. Wiring looks original and plugs right into US/120V outlet.