Stove inscribed "Rippingilles Patent ABC Stove Albion Lamp Company London & Birmingham". Alexander Rippingille (d. 1895) founded a lamp company in Aston, Birmingham, about 1875: this became the Albion Lamp Company by about 1888. By this time another member of the family, Frank Rippingille, had founded another patent stove company - also in Aston- and the two appear to have been in competition until Frank Rippingille's firm closed in 1903. Then - renaming itself Rippingille's and continuing in business making heaters and cooking stoves out of the Albion works in Aston - Alexander's firm continued to 1971 when taken over by Valor Ltd. The stoves included models for use afloat, not least in yachts: in Erskine Childers' 'Riddle of the Sands' (1903) Davies asks Carruthers (in London, by telegram) to obtain a No 3 Rippingille stove and bring it to Flensburg (see Notebook field). [PvdM amended 1/16]