Old aluminium kettle - id?  

It is difficult to tell...
It is difficult to tell without a photo. Perhaps this professional association can be of help.
http://www.certifiedpsychics.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos//...
.

Looks
like a Swan kettle from early 50s ??

Do you know for definite...
Do you know for definite that Swan made aluminium kettles? yes it has a look of the Swan electric kettle, but I think this might be earlier, it's not electric it sits on a hob.

No
not certain, hence the ??
But certainly has the look of Swan kettles
They did do stove top kettles however, I'm just old enough to remember 😉

It's so difficult to find...
It's so difficult to find these things on the web but I did look at a Swan website which just seemed to focus on electric ones (some pretty old) and most were made of copper or steel, I didn't see any aluminium ones. I just found a museum of technology on the web and have asked them a question and provided the pic address for them so maybe they might be able to give a more precise idea?
Thanks anyway!

Robert
I think it might even be older, maybe 40's. You Brits will be the experts on kettles, though, so I bow to you.

You
could be right Riki,
Not much happened her design-wise due to Post War austerity between 45 and 51... it was a pretty stagnant time

That distinctive low round...
That distinctive low round picquot ware shape probably influenced things from the thirties on, I think that's when picquot ware started wasn't it? If so, then it's quite possible that the kettle could be forties as it has distinct similarities.

The Picquot (actually Newmaid...
The Picquot (actually Newmaid at first) kettle was designed in the 30s but didn't go into production til 1946 - it was shown at the Britain Can Make It exhibition in 1946. This kettle is pretty contemporary with the Picquot I'm sure and I've seen a few around over the years. Aluminium was one of the few materials in abundance after the war so lots of stuff got made out of it - a lot of it was unused aluminium that people donated for the war effort in 1941 ("saucepans into Spitfires") being sold back to them... I'd disagree about not much happening in Britain between 1945 and 1951 - Ernest Race,Day/Latimer, Neil Morris etc were all producing some of their best work with f-ck all resources, necessity the mother of invention and all that. The snag was that it was mostly earmarked for export with nothing for the home market.