My new Hoover Constellation and 119 Junior

[markus79]

I found this nice red/white Hoover Constellation 867A last week and got it torsday. This red one is our latest connies from early 70´s. It cost only 3,50 euros + postage so it was cheap. This Junior I bought about a year ago but I cleaned it yesterday.
Hope you like pictures=)
Best Regards Markus

 

[markus79]

Hoover 867A Constellation

I love these old style yellow dustbags=)

 

[markus79]

Hoover 867A constellation

a double instulated model with the white cable. There are not any scraches in this paint.

 

[markus79]

Hoover 867A constellation

Type plate. 600W motor

 

[markus79]

Hoover 867A constellation

non floating model with the blowing function.

 

[markus79]

Hoover Constellation

I found this catalog picture of walk on air-Hoover. This must be our only floating model in Finland!! Funny because I thought there are not any of them=)

 

[markus79]

Hoover 119 Junior

There he is=) This must be from early 1950´s

 

[markus79]

Hoover 119 junior

in quite a nice shape

 

[markus79]

Hoover 119 Junior

A type plate

 

[markus79]

Hoover 119 Junior

Front. I have somewhere the hose and nozzles which came with this vacuum but maybe I found them some day=)

 

[jmurray01]

If you are trying to make me jealous Markus, IT IS WORKING!

You know I love Hoover so and none more than those two beauties!

I shall have to seek Constellation (see what I did there ?) in the vintage Hoovers I already own since I have no money for more just now...

 

[portable]

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: medium;">Beautiful vacuums, Markus. That Constellation looks like it is brand new!</span>

 

[vintagerepairer]

Well I never knew the Constellation continued in the none-floating format following it's discontinuation on the UK market in the 1950's. Then to see it was the much later style fitted with the none-floating base. Markus do you know why your country did not have the style sold in the UK and USA? I am wondering to myself if it could be due to the amount of hard-floors in Europe. I cannot see the Constellation floating on a floor as comfortably as it would a carpet.

 

[jmurray01]

The Constellation was discontinued in the UK in the 1950's ? I thought it went on through the 1960s.

 

[vintagerepairer]

No, you know it went on for longer and I am sure you know I know that too. It made until the early 1980's in the UK. What I said was that the none-floating format was discontinued in the UK in the 1950's. The original Constellation cleaner had a hole in the top for the hose and a flat base on which it sat. It stayed like this for a few years, before having the base changed in such a way that it could then float across carpets.

I think it was 1959 when the Constellation was changed so drastically into the style which it became famous for. The first model was pink and, the very last one yellow and white. It is an unusual cleaner in the sense that from 1959 until the early 1980's, it was on sale and to the naked eye was virtually unchanged. Indeed even to those in the know, there were only a handful of minor changes to the cleaner during that time which we could note. I do remember a woman telling me that she had owned two Constellation cleaners, one in pink and one in blue. I can think of very few other vacuum cleaners which have been on sale for over 20 years without any major changes to the styling. Of the top of my head, I can only think of the Numatic Henry.

 

[jmurray01]

I did think it went on at least until the 1960s but wasn't 100% sure (I'm not all that knowledgeable on Constellations) hence my asking.

I hope it didn't sound like I was being cheeky, I really wasn't.

If it did, I am sorry.

Thank you for the extra information though, I never knew the UK had a non-floating Constellation, I thought the Celebrity was the non-floating Hoover cylinder of the time, but I shouldn't be surprised I was wrong about that since those two models are the ones I know least about.

 

[vintagerepairer]

There were two celebrity cleaners in the UK, one had wheels and automatic cordwinder, the other lay very flat on the floor and would float too. Although the Constellation was a popular cleaner, I didn't think a choice of floating vacuum was ever necessary.

 

[jmurray01]

That is interesting - so there was a Celebrity which was more basic than the Constellation and a Celebrity which was more advanced. The Constellation was a half way house so to speak.

I personally don't see a real need for it either, there after all was nothing wrong with wheels, or even the sliders to a certain extent, but the floating idea did take off (as a gimmick or not that is debatable) but hey ho, it makes it what it is today - a desirable classic.

It is a bit like the Dyson "ball" I suppose, something which some say makes things easier and some see right through, but they all consider buying... Well, except for me, I hate Dysons...

 

[vintagerepairer]

The Celebrity Air-ride, which was the floating model, was comparable to the Constellation. The main difference was it's size. It was like a squashed Constellation. I think also it had telescopic tubes, being from the USA.