A catalogue of things nobody stopped making

A long run is a kind of review

An object that has been made for seventy years has been bought, used, worn out and bought again by three generations of people who could have chosen something else. That record is harder to fake than a star rating, and easier to check.

So the catalogue is arranged the way a shop is, by the things people look for, and within each it shows the objects that have been in production longest. It does not say they are the best. It says they have lasted, and shows the evidence.

Three tests, applied to every entry

It has to be one maker’s object rather than a type anyone can make. What is sold today has to be essentially what was first made. And it may have paused, but it may not have been revived. The tests, with the cases that decided them, are set out under What counts, along with the objects they turned away.

Done by machine, and shown working

Each entry is researched by language models reading published sources: maker histories, reference works, the trade and collecting press. They look hardest for evidence that production stopped or was later revived, since that is what the record usually hides. Entries are published without a person checking each one.

That is why every date carries its standing — verified, claimed or disputed — and why every entry lists its sources. Where the evidence is unclear, the object is left out rather than published. Where the sources disagree, both years appear, with the case for each.

Illustrations, and the archive

The views of each object are generated illustrations, drawn as a set on one ground and at one scale so the catalogue can be read by eye. They are not photographs, and each page says so.

Old advertisements and photographs of early examples are reproduced from wherever they survive: magazines, archives, dealers’ listings. Each is captioned with where it appeared and linked to the page it was found on.

The date belongs to the line, not the listing

Where an entry links to a retailer, the link is to the object as it is sold today. A listing never carries the date: the year belongs to the line of production, and a version is linked only if it would pass the same tests itself.