We got this lovely little stove from a pal out in Bulgaria but we are slightly puzzled since it is almost too good to be true being in mint condition except for the box which is a wee bit battered. We note that some folk are cleaning old, battered stoves up and coating them in Teflon – quite why, we are not sure – and it looks like that’s what has happened here as instead of the usual historic smell of paraffin, the stove smells like it has just been painted. It’s a lovely little stove whatever, and comes from the Gustav Barthel factory in Dresden. They have been making stoves of various types since the 1890’s and we wonder about the connection between them and Primus of Sweden as their early stoves look very similar and both companies applied for patents for their ‘sootless’ stoves in 1892 – collusion, industrial espionage? – who knows! Because Gustav Barthel made stoves for the German army in World War II, they were appropriated in 1946, though it seems some production carried on and we suspect our little stove comes from that post war period – we’re sure the Teflon does!