Featured Oil Lamp Font ID Needed

I bought one of those one piece cast iron frame hanging oil lamps. It came with a glass oil lamp that has a mark on the bottom that I can't identify.

I tried taking pictures but couldn't get the mark to show very well. So, I'll describe it and hopefully this will be enough.

The mark consists of 2 B's back to back with a much larger S centered over them. The lamp takes an Aladdin type burner with the large threaded collar. Much larger than most lamps.

If you don't know about the mark, a source for oil lamp id would be great. Thanks!

 

even a bad photo....is better'n none..!

 

I'll have to try again on Sunday. Right now, I need to get to bed. It's the ANTIQUES ROADSHOW tomorrow!!!

 

as in......you're going ?

 

Yup! Harrisburg, PA. A friend and I went last year in Norfolk, VA too. I won tickets last year, he won them this year.

 

@vintagerobin If you haven't done so yet, post a thread about your experience!

 

NEAT!!!!! I tried a couple of times for Boston, but no luck yet!!!! HAVE FUN!!!!!! AND, let us know how it went!!!! .......and who you saw/talked to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I went a couple of times. The first time was early on and it was Hell! We got online early in the morning and soon online until they finally got to us around 4:00. The appraisers were tired and cranky at us. HELLO! At least they got to sit down, we were on our feet all day!

Then they wised up and did the timed tickets. Easy peesy - in and out in less than a half hour

They were able to tell me things I didn't know about my items and helped me learn how to better read and interpret pottery marks. It was a lot of fun.

 

Hi Marie,
The first time I went I stood in line for hours. The second time I took a small folding chair. Well worth the trouble. Now if I went I would take a wheel chair.
greg

 

I'm sorry for not coming back sooner. It's been a busy week with company and lots of work.

Here are pics of the lamp and it's mark. I haven't cleaned it yet so pardon the dirt.

 

At the moment can't help you on the maker of this bracket oil lamp font. The pattern of this glass is usually called Frosted with Clear Bar. Thuro's Oil Lamps, The Kerosene Era in North America, p. 172, figures: a, b, & c. has this pattern in 3 different shaped fonts. None of the fonts is a bracket font like yours. She gives no maker's name and mentions no maker's mark on any of them. One of the fonts does have "Patent Applied For" embossed around the peg. I assume this glass pattern was probably made by more than one glass manufacturer with the over all lamp maker buying the fonts from the glass makers. The author doesn't give any dates on them either, but they are all mounted on iron stem-bases that date in the late 1870s. This is no proof that your font dates to that same time for this glass font pattern may have been for a couple of decades.

I have a frosted clear bar font. There was a thread about lamp that at first I thought was this pattern back in 2015. Following is a link to it with a pic of my font and any other info I had
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/can-anyone-tell-me-about-this-kerosene-lamp.5766/

--- Susan

 

Can you post a pic of the entire hanging lamp apparatus. Do look the iron frame over carefully for marks. B&H (Bradley & Hubbard) iron bracket lamp frames, etc... usually have one of their logos on it. Also the style of the hanging frame for your lamp may help in IDing the maker of the frame but not of the font. No doubt you know already that fonts used in bracket lamps and many hanging lamps were the same, same bases.

BTW, the collar on your font appears to have 2 groove lines as opposed to rib lines. This style collar does date to the late 1870s to possibly the 1890s. Look carefully around the sides of the collar for any patent info. Some do have such info.

--- Susan

 

Thanks Ladybranch! I don't have pics but it's just like this frame. They call it a Miller.

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/miller-co-cast-iron-hanging-oil-1858612455

 

Lovely lamp! They are probably calling it a Miller because of the Miller's Venus burner and possibly from the "M" on the bottom of the font. Burners are a very inaccurate way to date and ID the maker of an oil lamp. It was common for burners on oil lamps to be replaced several times during their lifetime. Now the "M" embossed on the bottom of the font may stand for Miller, but Miller was not a glass company. They bought their glass fonts from glass makers. Miller did metal work.

The frame of this hanging lamp may have been made by Miller and then again could easily have been made by Bradley & Hubbard, J.C.Ives Patent Lamp Co., Tucker Mfg. Co., etc... I have looked through c1870s Reprints of Miller, Ives, Tucker, etc. catalogs. I haven't found this hanging lamp. Nowww the 1883/1884 Bradley & Hubbard Mfg. Co. Illustrated Catalogue has several pages of hanging, hall pendant (yours), bracket lamps. I found on page 33, No. 586, a hanging chandelier and on p. 95, No. 107, a 3 arm bracket both having the same fan shaped bottom finial. The lamp like yours has only one of these fan shape bottom finial. The ones in the catalog have several. Page 89, No 451, is a hall pendant lamp in a frame that is similar to yours with iron frame having the ribbed design and similar but not identical curves and scrolls. It is not identical and has a different pendant/final hanging from the bottom. The basket holding the font may be the same, but not sure at all for can't see it well enough. Following are scans from the B & H catalog of the same bottom finials and of the hall pendant lamp with similar iron frame.

--- Susan

From a reprint of the 1883/1884 Bradley & Hubbard Mfg. Co. Illustrated Catalogue for educational purposes.

The similar iron frame and possible basket, p. 89:


Pages 33 and 95 respectively - same bottom finials:




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Edit: If I had to bet, I would guess B & H were the maker of the hanging lamp, but this certainly hasn't been proven. If you plan to sell it, I would say something like possibly by Bradley & Hubbard frame.