Rocketwarrior and Joe:
RW,
The hose in the top of your pic is from a turquoise Model G, and the one in the bottom is from the dark turquoise Model L. (The same color and pattern of hose was used with the 1205, but it did not have this type of curved metal handle.)
Attached is a close-up of a swatch of fabric from a Model LX hose. This is as close to the original color, hue and intensity as you will find: This sample came from inside the machine-end coupler where it had been protected from light throughout the years. It was a hose that was crummy, old and faded. I wanted to save the ends from it.
When I pulled the machine-end coupler off and saw the color of the hose that had been inside it, it really amazed me! It was the first time since I was a kid that I had seen a cloth LX/E hose with such intensity in its colors. Because the material was cloth, it fades over the years. Most of the ones you find nowadays are faded to a bland beige sort of color, with the color of the background and the color of the decorative pattern barely indistinguishable from one another.
When the LX/E hoses were new, they created an odd optical illusion: The background color was dark, almost a charcoal gray, and the chevron-shaped pattern was a bright, intense blue. So, when you would stare at the hose for a while without blinking, the blue pattern would begin to appear to be floating above the gray background!
I doubt the same effect will obtain with this photo, but try it and see!
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Joe,
That's a BEAUTIFUL box from the LX! I have one that's not in quite as nice condition but it is all intact.
I have to say, Electrolux really went all out when this new Model LX was introduced in 1952. Every thing about it was deluxe -- the styling, the many attachments available, even the packaging and of course the fabulous instruction booklet!
I don't know of any other manufacturer who ever put out a 40-page full-color instruction manual! And even more unbelievably, the LX manual hasn't just got color photos, but color watercolor paintings that an artist had to very laboriously create! (No scanners or Photoshop back in those days!)
To those with backgrounds in printing and graphic art, it boggles the mind to consider the cost and technical difficulties involved in producing such a manual in the early 1950s! Truly amazing!!
