The quest for the perfect slice of toast led to many innovations in toaster engineering and design. A September 1930 Ladies’ Home Journal advertisement proclaimed this Hotpoint single-slice electric toaster produced “Golden brown slices of scientifically caramelized goodness” as well as being “the most beautifully designed toaster in over twenty-six years of electric appliance leadership.” Hotpoint was a British appliance company founded in 1911. In the 1920s, through a joint venture with General Electric, the two companies began to make electric toasters for homes in both England and the United States.
Electric toasters, which did not gain real popularity until the late 1920s, were often a symbol of modernism. The toaster’s “Art Deco” styling was a combination of many different art movements of the time. It used geometric shapes and unusual, modern materials to create a new, “modern” aesthetic that became increasingly popular until the great depression.
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