Brassworks

In true Steampunk style this coffee maker gives the impression of being capable of making an excellent brew with just the flick of a safety match.

Sadly the internal secrets of this apparatus were lost many years ago and this faithful reproduction is built from a few re purposed parts and a lot of healthy imagination. However it is possible to imagine the flickering of a spirit burner under the fluted boiler building up a healthy head of steam. The pressure gauge and glass water level indicator would be monitored by a highly trained Barista in his starched shirt and black vest before he turned the large black lever to let steam flow into the copper vessel holding the freshly roasted and ground coffee beans.

In our imagination the enticing and aromatic smell of fresh coffee literally surrounds us as the Barista turns the brass handled valve to allow the dark life sustaining liquid to fill the unusual shape of the coffee jug.

This unique apparatus owes its splendid name to the three large “emeralds” adorning the base legs. In reality, however, the boiler is a re purposed brass lamp base, the filter system a copper plumbing fitting and the legs are from a brass chandelier. The coffee filling funnel and key wound grinder are part of a brass vase and the coffee “percolator” was once a domestic fly spray unit.

The “coffee pot” may have served tea to the landed gentry of Central Victoria before it came into contact with a fire fierce enough to remove most of its original silver plate.