See it on eBay
This red and white Luster Ware plastic cookie canister looks like the one in Lucy’s kitchen, however the one on the show appears to have a handle on top more like the Burrite canisters in yellow pictured below.
Lustro Ware ad from 1954 5-pc Starter Set priced $9.95
See it on eBay
Burroughs Mfg., Burrite, Yellow Plastic Canisters
Or a Red set HERE
In a hilarious scene from the I Love Lucy episode LA at Last Lucy finds a novel use for a cup of coffee. The cup and saucer are square shaped and the cup handle forms a distinctive ear shaped curve. We now have an ID for the coffee cup thanks to a generous contributor to this blog.
The coffee cups and saucers seen on the show are by Franciscan Ware ( a trade mark of Gladding, McBean & Co ). The Franciscan Tiempo single color line was produced from 1949 – 1954. It featured a squared shape and came in several colors including apricot, yellow,white,grey, lime green, olive green, brown and tan.
This design first appeared in the 1940 Metropolitan range that used a two color pattern by Franciscan Ware designed by Morris B. Sanders in 1940 as an entry for the Metropolitan Museum of Arts 1940 Exhibition of Contemporary American Industrial Arts, and was one of the first “square” dinner sets
The Metropolitan range were colored white inside the cups. The single color design called Tiempo appeared in 1948/49.
[phpbay keywords=”Franciscan Tiempo cup saucer” num=”2″ siteid=”1″ sortorder=”BestMatch” templatename=”columns”]
References:
Ricky Ricardo is seen on his home projection screen in the I Love Lucy episode Home Movies. A closer look at the logo tells us it is a Radiant DeLuxe Champion Projection Screen from the Radiant Manufacturing Corporation. The original Radiant Champion model was renamed as the Radiant DeLuxe Champion in 1949 and was advertised at a price of $15 that year. It was described as made from a new glass beaded fabric called Vyna-Flect “which overcomes the hazards of fire and mildew“.
In the video clip above there is a section of the western sketch in Lucy’s home movie where the video and sound in some of the segments run backwards, on youtube there is anther video clip from the show that reverses the video so you can find out what they are saying at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57oENa8VeXc
References
Little Ricky keeps his pet fish, named Mildred and Charles, in a large shallow glass fish bowl. If you search eBay for vintage fish bowl you will usually find a few just like the fish bowl Lucy is carrying in the above screen capture from the I Love Lucy episode Little Ricky gets a Dog
The Anchor Hocking 1 gallon fish bowl is a good match for Little Ricky’s one.
Here is another Margo Alexander print seen on the I Love Lucy set. This one is seen in the early episodes as one of three landscape prints on the back wall of the living room set. Later, after the Ricardo’s move to the bigger apartment it can occasionally be seen above the mantel alcove over the livingroom fireplace, as seen in the publicity picture below
Here we see the Margo Alexander picture indicated by an arrow uppermost above the fireplace. Below it are a pair of E Melvin Bolstad prints we looked at in this post.
More about Margo Alexander in this earlier post Here.
In the scene pictured above from “I Love Lucy” episode Lucy Meets Charles Boyer we see Ethel speaking to Lucy on the set of Ricardo’s hotel room in Paris. In the background we can see the owl bookends we looked at before in the Ricardo’s living room, later they moved to a shelf in Ethel’s living room when she got Lucy’s old furniture, and now the are in the Paris hotel set. The book title appears to be “An Introduction to French” and a possible candidate for this book is:
Strictly speaking a prop is only a prop if the actor holds/uses it on stage or screen, other items that appear on set are called “set dressing”. Arguably, the most used props on I Love Lucy were the cigarette lighters. The Zippo Lady Bradford table lighter is one we see a lot of, usually it is placed on the coffee table as seen above.
A quick search on eBay today produced this vintage Zippo Lady Bradford table lighter Click here to see the listing.
Ref: http://www.zippo.co.uk/subpages.php?mod=starRole
On eBay this week there is a wooden poker chip carousel advertised as an original prop from I Love Lucy. Card games were a popular form of recreation in the 50’s and this is reflected in the series.
Click here to see the listing.
See more vintage poker chip carousels on eBay.
See more vintage poker chip carousels on Etsy
See more vintage poker chip carousels on Bonanza
In the episode LUCY GOES TO THE HOSPITAL which aired January 19, 1953 the show opens with Ricky researching ideas for a mask for a “Voodoo” number for his show. The book he refers to is Masks of West Africa – 1952 by Leon Underwood
http://www.amazon.com/Masks-West-Africa-Leon-Underwood/dp/B0006DCVHG
http://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/masks-of-west-africa/author/underwood-leon/
Update: Scan of the page from the book Ricky is looking at:
Lucy is occasionally seen using her aluminum double boiler, but perhaps most famously when she heats up a potion to use on Ricky’s hair in the hilarious scene from which the above captures are taken. 
Lucy’s double boiler has a distinctive shape that widens at the base which helps narrow down the possible makers when searching for a vintage one like it. A good match is this vintage Comet double boiler seen on ebay today.
A double boiler is really two saucepans – a smaller one fits above the base pan below. The base saucepan is used to hold simmering hot water which should not touch the bottom of the top pan so that the steam creates a gentle heat without burning. It is used when you don’t want direct heat under the item you are cooking, such as when making certain custards or sauces, melting chocolate etc.