Endurism Dossier: The Hundred-Year Fan

Cast-iron desk fan, brass blades. Emerson, GE, Westinghouse, AEG, Siemens-Schuckert, Marelli. 1900 to 1940.

Research frame

• New price: none. This is a secondhand object. The acquisition price is the price.
• Acquisition (NL): working cast-iron and brass desk fans run roughly €40 to €150 on Marktplaats and 2dehands. European makers turn up most: AEG, Siemens-Schuckert, Marelli, all built between 1900 and 1940.
• Acquisition (international): early American brass-blade fans from Emerson, GE and Westinghouse sell for $150 to $700 and up on eBay. Restored examples and rare models go higher. Documented dealer sales reach four figures.
• Lifespan and repair: the motor runs on a single oil port and was designed to be oiled, not discarded. The Antique Fan Collectors Association keeps parts, knowledge and rewire kits in circulation. A 1940 fan takes a rewire kit and runs another lifetime.
• Cheap counterpart: a plastic table fan at €15 to €25, binned roughly every two summers. (Representative figure.)

NCO ledger, three years

Example: a working brass-blade fan bought at €90.

Patina dividend: €30 over three years. The fan holds its price, so owning it costs almost nothing. The plastic money is gone. At year fifty the antique still turns.

(Resale figure from Marktplaats and eBay comps. Condition-dependent.)

The Editor

A Siemens-Schuckert fan built in 1932 still moves air across a desk in 2026. Cast iron base. Brass blades. A single oil port on the back of the motor.

The thing was made to be serviced. You drip oil into the port once a season. You replace the cloth cord when it frays. Beyond that there is almost nothing to fail, because there is almost nothing inside. A motor, a shaft, a cage, blades. Emerson stamped "Built to Last" on the tag and meant it literally.

The money is the strange part. You pay €90 for a working example on Marktplaats. Three years later it is worth €90, or more, because the supply only shrinks. You owned a fan for three summers and it cost you the price of a bottle of machine oil. The €20 plastic fan from the supermarket is in a landfill by then. So is its replacement.

This is the patina dividend in its purest form. The fan does not depreciate. It appreciates. Brass darkens. Paint wears down to the metal. Collectors pay for exactly that. The wear is the value.

There is a scene around these fans. People rewire them, polish the cages, trade them at shows. You buy into a hundred-year-old object that will outlast the room you put it in.

Verdict card

A fan from 1932 that returns its purchase price is the cheapest air in the house.

VO script (45 to 75 seconds)

Calm. Documentary. One line per image.

• A brass-bladed fan turns on a wooden desk.
• This fan was built in 1932.
• Cast iron. Brass. One drop of oil a season.
• It has outlived every plastic fan ever sold against it.
• You pay ninety euros for one today.
• In three years it is still worth ninety.
• The cheap fan is gone by August.
• This one is still turning.
• Own better.

Infographic spec

• Chart: two bars, net cost over three years. Antique €10 against plastic €40.
• Headline number: €30. The patina dividend.
• Subline: "owned for three summers, cost almost nothing."
• Palette: bone white #F4F1EA, charcoal #1C1C1C. Roboto Slab. Paper grain.

Atomisatieplan (angle per channel)

• Reel (EN): the oil-port ritual and the price that climbs. One season of oiling in macro. A fan older than your grandparents, still running.
• LinkedIn (EN): the NCO chart. Headline: a fan that costs €10 to own for three years. Depreciation against appreciation for durable goods.
• YouTube (EN): the restoration arc. Barn find to working desk fan. The AFCA scene, the rewire, the first turn.
• Newsletter (NL): de Marktplaats-jacht. Welke merken (AEG, Siemens-Schuckert, Marelli), waar je op let, wat een eerlijke prijs is.

Own better.