Oil lamp

I bought this (spray-painted but made of zinc) art nouveau -style oil lamp today.
Thoughts or opinions about the age? What about the maker?

 

Very nice
Since it says Berlin, I'm going to guess that it is German in origin.
If you have any other oil lamps, you might see if American burners fail to fit. Generally American parts are interchangeable, but European don't fit American lamps.
Not sure about this, but I believe European threads go the opposite way. I might be wrong on this though.

 

Just re read what I wrote this morning and I'm not sure I made sense.
American parts are interchangeable with American lamps, but do not fit European lamps.

 

I'm having trouble IDing the maker of this lamp and or burner. The thumbwheel seems to have "Record K & G Berlin." There are a couple of good websites showing thumbwheels of European makers. Neither of them has a K & G. The top of the burner has "Brenner" - the German word for burner. It has nothing to do with the manufacturer.

http://lumiara.perso.neuf.fr/lumiara/en/manuen.htm
http://www.oldcopper.org/special_topics/oil_lamp_makers.php

As to the type of burner, I'm not sure from the pics. It appears to have a cylinder wick holder that takes a round tubular wick. If it has such a wick would mean a center draft burner and lamp; however, a central draft burner lamp has a open cylinder running down and out the font that supplies air. The pic of the font doesn't seem to have that type of font.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene_lamp#Central_draft_.28tubular_round_wick.29_lamp

I'm still looking.

--- Susan

 

Still haven't found the K & G burner manufacturer; however, can give info on the burner. This burner is a Kosmos type burner that was developed by Wild & Wessel of Berlin in 1865. These burners used a flat wick formed into a round. Instead of a central air shaft through the font, they had a side draft. This made them easier and cheaper to make then central draft burner lamps. Nowww as this is not a central draft lamp, then the maker of burner was not necessarily the maker of the lamp. By the turn of the century many many companies were making Kosmos burners. These burners are still being made today. This is all the info I have for you. I am woefully ignorant of European lamps and burners. BTW, that round disk on the top of the burner is a flame spreader.

Here are a couple of sites with info on this type of burner:
http://www.milesstair.com/KOSMOS-BRENNER_LAMPS_&_WICKS.html
http://lampguild.org/QandApage/archives/Q0004405.php

--- Susan

 

Hmmm.... I wish I'd finish my research before posting. On further research have found that this burner is a Matador rather than a Kosmos. The Matador burner was an improvement on Kosmos burners. They were "introduced" in 1895 by Ehrich & Graetz of Berlin. The big difference between the Matador and the original Kosmos burner was a flame spreader. According to the above link to milesstair on Kosmos burners, the Kosmos burner #15 is a Matador.

Scroll down to about the 6th paragraph that starts "About 1895, Ehrich & Graetz of Berlin introduced the 'Matador' burner, in which a flame spreader was used."
http://www.milesstair.com/KOSMOS-BRENNER_LAMPS_&_WICKS.html

Again want to stress the maker of the side draft burners such as Kosmos and Matador, is not necessarily the lamp maker. Central draft burners and lamps have to be made by the same manufacturer. Scroll down the following page to the 3rd section **up** from the bottom, "Important notice about kerosene-burners and lamps."
http://lumiara.perso.neuf.fr/lumiara/en/keroen.htm

--- Susan

 

Thanks for all the info.
On close inspection I noticed that the burner has been "made over" at some point to fit a wider wick. At least that I assume. Unsuccessfully so and it doesn't function and it seems the current wick has never been burned probably for that reason.
There are lots of soldered spots inside the burner.
I guess I have to find a functioning one to replace it.

 

You say the wick doesn't function? Are you saying that you cannot raise it up and down? Often times you can't move a wick until you put lamp oil in and the wick is wet with fluid.

 

The "rotating" knob is very tight and doesn't twist around apart from a small amount. I don't know what that is caused by.

 

Btw, I removed the spray-paint with nail polish remover and a toothbrush:



The lid is a different tone for some reason although it looks the same on the interior as the rest of the lamp. I did apply more pressure to the other areas though so maybe they got a polishing.
I can't make my mind about whether or not this is a good piece. And to keep it or not.

 

Hmmmm.... I don't think the "lid" and the body/base of the lamp is of the same lamp. The design is not anywhere near the same. The base seems to be of a fruit and floral design while the top "lid" has a scroll medallion design. Boy, I hadn't noticed that before. With it stripped, the design differences really stand out. That is probably why it was spray painted.

The base of this lamp would be called spelter. Zinc is the main component of spelter. Spelter was used for many oil lamps especially for figural oil lamps. The spelter was then painted silver, bronze, black or whatever. Following is an example of a stripped down spelter figural lamp, a spelter figural lamp with remnants of the bronze coating, and a spelter lamp painted black. Spelter cast lamps made it much easier to do detail work.

--- Susan

Showing good deal of spelter with a bit of the bronze remaining:


Remnants of bronze coating on spelter stem:


Spelter lamp stem painted black:

 

A little on dating spelter oil lamps. According to Oil Lamps II by Thuro, p. 22, spelter "was the common trade name for zinc, usually referred to today as white metal, It was cast in metal molds to create sculptured lamp parts that were usually gilded or finished to resembled bronze. Discovery and development of U.S. zinc mines in the early 1870's dramatically reduced foreign competition. This probably led to the increase in variety and production of figure stem lamps that lasted through the 1880s."

Spelter, a zinc alloy, is composed of usually equal parts of zinc and copper.

--- Susan

 

Very Nice Lamp

Think I found history on this lamp if you read though it
The company was referred to Has K&G Gaunt and was based in Berlin also the Inventor spent time in America ,


Info, History of Petromax - hytta.de Startseite

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&s...Agu3hVAHKqGltg2LQ&sig2=MaFy7-8mJDPmp7LAXAxcGg

 

I'm not so sure about that. The underside of the lid is exactly the same colour as the rest of the lamp so it's the same metal.
I don't think it was painted because of that. 90% of this type oil lamps around this area are spray-painted. It's rare to find one that isn't.
The lid sits like a glove. If you look at the foot of the lamp and the middle part, there is very little similarity in the pattern between the two as well, even though they are one solid piece.

The lid also has some flowers on it & similar "sand-like" texture that can be found elsewhere on the lamp.
The only things that stand out are the colour (but that doesn't prove anything) and the amount of sets of patterns on the lid (4) even though the middle part and foot only have three sets of the pattern they have.

I only paid 30$ for the whole thing and 10$ for nail polish remover. I'm just disappointed that it might not be a "perfect" item after all..

 

Bluemoon it's a very nice thing and in my opinion well worth the Money

Even if its not perfect if you like it what does it Matter ,