1936 Hawkins Tecal

The Hawkins Tecal (pronounced tea-call) was designed by George Absolom and manufactured by him until World War Two in 1939. The Tecal featured a chrome kettle, but no teapot. An advert for this model appeared in the Army and Navy catalogue for 1939-1940. The entry described the Tecal as a ‘Robot Servant’, and recommends that it can be used for heating shaving water. Frustratingly for Hawkins, Tecal was mis-spelled ‘Tegal’.

This body shape appeared again in an article in Everybody’s Weekly dated September 1945 entitled “The Post War Home”.