More wonderful woddities this week from seller nomoredrama4me, who has been slowly unpacking their father-in-law’s warehouse of new old stock items and listing them for our delight and purchase on ebay. This time, a stash of five vintage Hall-Mack Extendo-Bar towel racks for the bathroom — on our list of 18 rare vintage Hall-Mack bathroom accessories. These sold out in a flash. But with a warehouse full of goodies being unpacked and listed for sale daily
(affiliate link), maybe there will be more soon.
Above: From our story 18 rare vintage Hall-Mack bathroom accessories. Pam recalls seeing one Extendo-Bar in the wild. It’s interesting to see how they were packaged and marketed — looks like they were sold separately from the 3/4″ towel bar that went with.
To see the other items coming out of the warehouse daily, go to the following (all affiliate links):
- Lots of NOS from an old hardware store
- Mac and Iphone and IPad users try this link instead — when you get there, look for the Search box that says SEARCH WITHIN STORE, then type in New Old Stock to narrow search.
Sam R says
I have one bracket from an Extend-o-bar, but unfortunately none of the other parts. It turned up in the pile of brackets at the local Restore, which I pick through every now and then for vintage Hall-Mack bits. They’re certainly not common.
Joe Felice says
You know, it’s just amazing how-many gadgets were brought to us by Hall-Mack back in the day! Nutone is another. Then we could start talking about the cabinet manufacturers. My, we were an inventive bunch, weren’t we?
Tammy Elliott says
I’m looking for the ceramic towel bars. They are in my 1930’s house. There sre 3 missing and they replaced them with wood spindles.
pam kueber says
I don’t know where to get these new anymore. You might be able to find them vintage/salvage.
maria says
You could try to replace with glass or acrylic. Glass bars were common and would look better than the wood until you get lucky and find some ceramic ones.
Mary Elizabeth says
Yes, I have often seen glass paired with the ceramic holders.
Mary Elizabeth says
My great-grandma was an artist who lived in a one-bedroom apartment in New York City until she was 93. These towel bar extenders were convenient for drying nylon stockings, etc. (She still wore the ones with seams down the back.) She also had a clothes dryer rack on a pulley that let down from the ceiling over the tub when you wanted to hang more clothes to dry, then pulled back up to the ceiling out of the way when you had finished hanging them.
Diane says
I love your great-grandma, even though I never met her/knew of her until now…what a gal! Thanks for sharing your memories, Mary Elizabeth, they brought a smile to my face.
Chriss says
I have the extendo bar in the master bathroom. Luckily there is no pitting and looks really good for 58 years old. Funny how some chrome fixtures fared well while others pitted badly.
Julia B. says
We had a couple of these in my parents’ house growing up! I thought the extender was so cool.
Carolyn says
“Tow’lescope” – tickles my funny bone!
Makes you wonder why we don’t see innovation like this anymore…