Oil lamps, keep yours eyes out

kenb

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Oil lamps light a fire under collectors

By Anne Gilbert
GateHouse News Service
Posted Dec 13, 2008 @ 10:55 PM

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Old oil lamps are igniting renewed interest from collectors seeking decorative accessories that can still, if needed, provide light.

The lamps are also collected as examples of early American glass. At auction, prices vary from $200 to more than $6,000.

Especially popular with collectors are the miniature lamps, about 7 3/4 inches high. Not only do they come in a variety of colors and patterns, but they feature novel forms such as dogs and include attractive hand-painted motifs.

During the mid-19th century they were made in pressed patterns and in both clear and colored glass or colored cut glass. During the 1840s, American glass-makers took note of the popularity of colored cut and overlay lamps made in Bohemia. Colors were ruby, cobalt blue, green and red. Both the Boston & Sandwich Co. and the New England Glass Co. made hundreds that burned whale oil and later kerosene. Fancy designs in cut glass were made from the 1850s until 1905.

The earliest glass fluid lamps, made from 1810-1860, were simple in design. A base held an oval font top with a brass or pewter cap. A rough pontil mark on the base helps to identify them.

The design of many lamp bases changed with the discovery of better lighting fuels. The earliest used whale oil and camphene.

Petroleum use began in the United States in 1859. By the 1870s, until the advent of electricity, the rather smelly kerosene lamps were popular.

Another innovation was the “Fairy Lamp,” considered a great lighting advance in the 1870s. If you didn’t know any better, you wouldn’t recognize it as a lamp at all. Short, fat, one- or two-wick candles covered with a glass shade were set into bases of china, metal or glass. Considered choice are those in a Burmese glass pattern or mother-of-pearl or rainbow satin. If the lamp is signed by the Clarke Co. of England, which originated the style, you have a treasure.

Reproductions abound in some of the most popular patterns and colors. Among them is cranberry glass in the coin-dot pattern. Also reproduced were whale-oil lamps in colored, pressed-pattern glass. Repros have a mold seam that runs unbroken from top to bottom, through the disc between the font and the stem.


Anne Gilbert is the author of eight books on antiques and collectibles. She writes from her home in Boynton Beach, Fla. Send questions to: Anne Gilbert, c/o Home Living, The Patriot Ledger, P.O. Box 699159, Quincy,


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