I have a 1990 Cornue Grand Palais series range that I purchased used. I disassembled the unit completely for a thorough cleaning and I have some observations that may be of use to some of you. First the bad. The plating work on the trim (nickel in my case), is pretty bad. I took the pieces to a plating shop to be reworked, and the staff were not impressed. You can see that most of the pieces were finished with a belt sander. Because the base metal of the pieces is steel, over time, the backs of the pieces where they contact the stove enamel will begin to rust because of trapped moisture. This destroys the plating, and eventually works around to the front of the trim. The screws for the backs of the drawer slides were loose or missing, and the right side door slides had the back mounting holes drilled 1/2 inch too high, causing that door to be mis-aligned and to have a tendency to slide open. The body of the drawers is galvanized steel. One of mine had significant rust. There must be condensation issues. The gas piping was not deburred after being cut. Two pieces were cut too short, so the builder wasn't able to adequately tighten the joints. There were a few missing screws in the unit and one missing bolt. The right hand base was 1/8" too short, so they added shims between the base and the oven unit. Unfortunately the shims they added were only 1/16" high. An electrical connection on one of the main electric burner elements was never tightened correctly. There was obvious arcing at that point. There are no gaskets on the oven doors. This means that hot gasses will escape out the front and you will get deposits inside the upper door frame and front of the unit, where they will collect under the drip tray handles. There is no easy way to replace the chrome oven surrounds if they become damaged. You must COMPLETELY disassemble the unit, including removing/dismantling the controls (electric or gas) behind the control doors. This requires that the gas piping be disconnected, the top removed, the ovens separated, the sides removed, and then the inner sheet metal.. you get the idea. The knobs have plastic bushings to adapt to the small control stalks. One of mine distorted from the heat, so the knob doesn't stay square. Like many other "pro" ranges, there are many spots where panels meet in such a way that it is inevitable that fluids will seep in and cause problems. The chrome panels fronting the oven are typical, cleaning products just dribble straight down into an uncleanable gap. The cast aluminum door panels are very cool when perfectly buffed out, but inevitably, they will wither away with use. Sooner or later someone will use a cleaner incompatible with aluminum and wreck the finish. It has taken me several hours on a bench buffer to bring them back. The hinges in the door have a weak point: when you open the door all the way and put any pressure down, there is a small piece of metal in each hinge that is stressed. One of mine has a small crack that I will have to weld if I can't find a replacement. The venting in the back of the unit is poorly done. The vents terminate before the top of the backsplash, so cooking gases sort of spread out and coat the upper third of the unit. Not a major problem, but causes quite a bit of dirt buildup. The brass burner tops look great when polished, but that doesn't last long unless you are a fanatic about cleaning. I didn't even know they were brass until I saw it on a website. I polished mine on the buffer and hey look! brass! Unfortunately, they get pitted, so to really make them look great, you'd have to chuck them in a lathe and remove some metal. This would give them a limited lifetime. The racks are a bit flimsy. The chrome on mine had started to fail. The transformer for the spark ignitors was only grounded to the base of one unit. If you are having a problem with ignitors, make a pigtail to directly attach the ground wire from the transformer to one of the oven's base mounting screws. People are always saying that their high-end stoves are "built like tanks". No they aren't. Sure, with all that metal you need a stiff frame to bolt it all to, but individually, the ovens are pretty conventional. I've seen the same on Wolf commercial. You want heavy duty? Buy an 1895 wood burner. Ok, so now the good: The brass burner hardware is the neatest I have ever seen: a brass tube with a threaded adjuster sets the air flow, much nicer than the stamped metal shutters on Wolf commercial and others. The gas knobs are cast metal, plated. The have a nice heavy feel. The gas control hardware looks quality. All the wiring is sleeved with high temp silicone. Durable and looks nice. Mine was still in great shape. The porcelain held up very well with only a couple hardly visible dings. The electric controls are heavy duty euro style stuff. They must have stiffer regs over there. The electric switches are industrial quality. With some serious cleaning, I was able to take this 18+ year old range back to almost new condition. I paid $2k for the unit, and I am satisfied with it at that price. From what I can see looking at the new units at Williams-Sonoma, there is little visual difference with my unit, so I believe some of my comments would still apply. The bottom line here is, the cooking functions of the unit seem to be just fine, and have held up well over time. However, the range is not as easy to clean and maintain as a modern unit, and the build quality leaves much to be desired. The style fits perfectly with the kitchen of my Victorian, so I am willing to make some compromises in function. To any prospective buyers, I would say that just about any $1000 range from Sears will do a great job of cooking, operate reliably and be easy to clean and cheap (relatively) to service. Cornue makes their ranges "like they used to", but sometimes there's a good reason why they don't make them like that anymore. A purchase like this is about style. If you need a unit with two ovens, and (like mine), four burners, a flat cooktop and grill, the price of entry will probably be at least $5k. How you justify the extra $35k is all about style.

After twelve years of cooking on a circa 1938 Chambers B (we felt like it was a beloved grandma in the kitchen and had a very, very hard time 'pulling the plug'), we've just made the switch to a new range (A 30" Wolf dual fuel). We also briefly considered all the gorgeous ranges you are considering. But in the end we made what we thought was the safer and more conservative choice with the DF Wolf. After cooking for years with no "bells and whistles" I actually did want some modern conveniences (great interior lights, glide racks, convection, proof mode, timer, precise temp setting, etc.) and I wanted a range with no personality or quirky temperament. If your wife has been cooking on a Chambers she is probably used to powerful gas burners with an open flame. As you will see on the many posts on this forum and the appliance forum, there are pros and cons to each. For me, moving to sealed burners was the hardest adjustment so far. The 9,000 btu on my Chambers felt like a lot more power than the 15,000 on the Wolf. That said, the Wolf burners cook great. And I'm able to truly simmer for the first time in years. (Our Chambers burners were basically either full-throttle 'on' or 'off'). But cooking on sealed has a different feel and takes some getting used to. As for the new oven, the 30" oven feels huge compared to the Chambers (although there was never a problem getting the turkey cooked in the Chambers). And the quality of baking in the new electric oven (ditto broiling) has far exceeded my expectations. I always wondered if convention cooking was hype and now I'm convinced it is the greatest thing. So in addition to the all-important question of looks, make sure that your family has thought through the big open vs sealed burner and gas oven vs. electric questions. Despite the small oven, an ill-conceived top of range broiler, only three burners, a funky thermostat and oven racks that shrieked and an oven door that groaned, the Chambers was a very impressive and beloved machine -- the Rolls Royce of stoves in the 1930s and 1940s. So she deserves to be replaced by an equally impressive machine. Best wishes on your decision and keep us posted on how your wife loves her new range.

Yes, it's an Aga. Look it up and you'll learn that it's an always on furnace that was originally created to make it easier for blind people to cook. The heat just runs, and there are different densities and conductivities that give different temperatures to each oven. There are two heating plates with circular covers (center and right), one of which is for boiling and the other for simmering. I believe they're hottest in the middle the way a French top is. If you search through the forum archives you'll find some threads about cooking on an Aga. Aga also makes some similar designs with standard burners.

Even on a 30-y-o unit, a La Cornue should have electric ignition like our Lacanche ranges (another post on Houzz on a 1990 unit refers to this). Press the knob or a separate switch, and you get a spark at each burner. If that's the case, and this one needs to be ignited manually, then the ignition module is defective (not very expensive part and likely easy to replace before the stove is installed again) Otherwise, if "the propane must be hand lit" means that you have to reach for the matches or BBQ igniter every time you want to start a burner or the gas oven, it's definitely something to be aware of, and for you to decide if the low price / wow factor is worth it. All the best! Patrick