Featured Nautical lamp

I recently found this nautical lamp, made by Felthousen & Russell of Buffalo, NY. It has a patent date of 1861 and I believe it likely dates to the 1860’s as there is no mention of this company’s 1870 lamp patent, or their later ones. Now, it’s missing its burner and base with kerosene reservoir, amongst other things, but I still find it very interesting. With its red Fresnel lens, I expect it was a pier lamp? Anyway, an unusual lamp. If anyone can share information about it, or if you’ve seen a similar lamp, please let me know!

 

Found this lamp which is a different design but from the same maker and era. Also, has the same maker’s plaque and red lens.

 

One more pic of the second lamp:

 

It'd be nice to find one with a green lens, for port and starboard navigation lights.

 

Thanks, Frank. Navigation lights are normally made so that they’re visible only from certain angles, like the second lamp pictured above. If memory serves, it’s a 112.5 degree arc for green and red starboard and port lights, and 135 degrees for white stern lights. The red light I found would be visible through a full 360 degrees, which is why I think it was a pier light meant to mark something solid that a ship wouldn’t want to hit. These are typically red. Of course, navigation lights weren’t quite standardized yet in the 1860’s, so anything can go!

 

So beautiful, the name and patent writing had me almost gasp!

 

Thanks! I felt the same when I first saw it. After some research, I’m pretty sure it was a pierhead lamp that would have marked a hazard to shipping in Toronto harbour, 160-odd years ago.

 

A fairly early lamp with a Fresnel lens, designed to refract and amplify light source - first ones began appearing in the early 19th c. I see plenty of such navigation lights from 1890s to 1930s, but yours is a survivor, so many from 1850s-70s were lost or destroyed. That's a nice one you have there !

 

Thanks, Drew. I’ve got the picker this lamp came from trying to find the missing base and burner. While it’s probably too much to hope that he will, I have my fingers firmly crossed!

 

Hope he finds it, complete lamps are a big plus. It also would likely be marked with Patent date, etc.

 

There’s a patent date on the top of this one - December 3, 1861. Of course, on the base there could be more.

 

I wonder how long it’s been since this lamp was last lit?

 

Ta-da! Well done.

 

Thank you for your wonderful research, tagsale_notes! This lamp is beat-up and incomplete but I love it because it just oozes history. Crazy to think that it may have started life in Toronto Harbour around the time of the American Civil War. I have no idea how it managed to survive for so long and think it’s worth every penny of the $80 CAD I paid for it (to the same picker who found my quirt, btw!).

Now, would anyone be kind enough to tell me what this lamp sold for? I’m curious, now… https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-scarce-felthousen-russell-2027273922

 

Thank you once again, tagsale_notes. I really appreciate you taking the time to provide such a thoughtful reply!

BTW, I received a nice comment about this lamp on Facebook: