"The first crock pot"

A Dutch Cooking Stove - Petreoliestelletje

In the old days before electricity every house had a Petreoliestelletje to cook the casserole, stews and heat the water for dishes and cooking.  The casserole dish was the old heavy caste iron dish with a lid on it, the stew would simmer away, the stoves ran on kerosene. They also had a pot belly stove and/or a fire place to cook on,   We had a special kerosene tin, my brothers and I had to take turns to fill it up, from a man down the road who had a 44 gallon drum of kerosene, he was retired, in his spare time he was also a pall bearer.  They would wear black suits with tails and a high black hat, they were paid to be pall bearers.  These Dutch cooking stoves were brought to New Zealand by immigrants from Holland.  They are very rare I have a collection of eight of these stoves in different sizes and colours.