Mastercleaner
I wondered who won that auction.
Firstly GEC should not be confused with GE and I believe at the time we are looking at UK Hotpoint was nothing to do with US Hotpoint.
If we stick to the post WW2 era both GEC and Hotpoint had a reasonably wide range of domestic appliances encompassing refrigeration, cooking, laundry and vacuum cleaners. Hotpoint carried an upright vacuum only, GEC both canister and upright cleaners.
Around 1960 Hotpoint and the domestic appliance arm of GEC were merged into the AEI group and from that point the GEC brand name wound gradually down and the two appliance lines merged into one under the Hotpoint brand. As far as vacuums go the first sign of this was the Hotpoint Light and Easy upright from 1963 which might easily have originally designed as a GEC.
The Mastercleaner 3300 came around 1966 and is effectively the replacement for the GEC canister from the early 1960s. The clear characteristic indicating GEC design heritage is the very long hose handle, also a characteristic of the L&E upright.
The cleaner itself sounds exactly like an (European) Electrolux which indicates that the motors might have been sourced from them. The toolset resembles that from the L&E although the combination rug/floor nozzle looks like no other I have seen. These models are pretty rare - this is only the second I have seen on ebay and I have only seen one other example else where.
This model was still around in 1968 but by 1970 or so it had been replaced by a new model - I do not know if that was built in the UK or may have been bought in from Germany from where the later Hotpoint range was sourced.
Al
