oil lamps - any experts?

[Phil]

That's ok Bob, you can't win them all. So pre ww2 1930s?
That's fine by me. Its an 80 year old lamp and it is gorgeous to look at.
Would that have any bearing on the glass funnel? The funnel has an anchor on it and says fire proof.
On the dome where the wicks come out it says hinks and son patent. ???
Also, regarding the base, would that likely be original to this lamp? As I said, it is heavy but the brass feels hollow when you tap it. The bottom is green felt and it does still feel very old. Would that be in your catalogue?

Do you have any idea on my other lamp? That one feels very solid and seems in great condition.

[Dorset Bob]

Hi Phil,
Yes, I might be wrong, but I would guess at around the 1930s for the Hinks lamp.
The catalogue I have lists separate burners, shades, lamps etc, so without any markings it would be difficult to say who made the rest of it.
If you are brave enough you could remove the green felt base and have a look to see if there are any markings.

Regarding the other lamp, it was made by Samuel Heath & Sons.
There is one of their lamps for sale on eBay at the minute here
If you have a look at the images of the wick wheels you can see identical markings on yours.

I am sorry, but I do not have any of the Samuel Heath lamps in my collection, so I don't know much about them.
It seems that they did not often mark their lamps, so you would need to speak to a collector who knows about them.
I suspect though, that this one is probably much older than you think.
You might be able to google more about them.

Some good sources of information is the International Guild of Lamp Researchers here . They have a forum.

In the UK there is also the Historic Lighting Club.

Sorry I can't be of more help.
If you do decide to do some research, I would be very interested to find out.

[Phil]

Thanks for the interesting information. I am very happy indeed to have a 1930s lamp. We have just bought a funnel for it like the one you showed which appears to be very old and is marked "made in Czechoslovakia"

We were bidding on a Victorian shade but that went for £140 in the end.
We have bought a shade in pink, but I have doubts to the age of it and the seller didn't state. I would love a period shade to go with it but I'm not going to pay that when the lamp only cost £35!

As for the other one, underneath is a tin plate marked with "Veritas British made"
This one has no snuffer and no raiser so you have to dismantle it every time you want to light it.
It again, has no markings. It is beautiful though and feels very well made. Go on, have a guess on its age. I thought 1960s. It would be great if it were older but even if it were 1960s, that is still 50 years ago so still plenty of history and nostalgia.
I will join the forum you mention.


I will be sure to do some more research.

[Dorset Bob]

Here is a copy of a page from the Veritas Catalogue from September 1933:



You can see your Hinks Safety in the bottom right hand corner.
Quite an expensive burner at the time at 15/- compared to fixed gallery one above, (like your Samuel Heath one) at 6/-.

I know that Falk, Stadleman & Co had an arrangement with Samuel Heath and they would have been marketed as Veritas lamps, probably just described as "British Made".
But the identification on the wick winders, show the maker.

To hazard a guess, with the age of your one, I would guess at 1930s, as well .
This is on the assumption that it is recorded that things rather fell apart with the German Company, Falk, Stadleman & Co, (Veritas) and their British associates during the 1940s.

It is interesting to note, that in 1933, that only 1 in 3 houses had electricity in the UK. Ten years later it had doubled.
Rural areas, would not have got electricity until the 1940s, when most of these old oil lamps got thrown on the scrap heap.

Just a guess!

[Phil]

Wow.. That is awesome. Thanks for that.

Which ones were produced without a snuffer? My SHS lamp has no snuffer. Just wondered if that had any bearing on age.

[Dorset Bob]

No bearing on the age Phil, just the specification that people wanted and the also price they wanted to pay.

Large houses would have had dozens of oil lamps, ranging from grand lamps for the drawing / reception rooms, to basic ones for the servants.

They were designed to do a job, too. I have, for example, a Hinks Ship lamp. The lamp does not have bayonet fit (screw fitting instead), and no raising gallery.
It is so things would not come apart in rough seas.

[Phil]

Great stuff, thank you. The SHS lamp is screw fit and has a filler bolt on the reservoir. The Hinks lamp does not have a filler and you have to release the bayonet burner to refill.

[Dorset Bob]

The other things that effects what features an early lamp has, are those protected by patents.

J Hinks & Son, fiercely protected their patents against other lamp manufacturers who tried to copy their ideas.
They had scores of patents, the best known was for the Duplex oil lamp in 1865, but there were many, many more.

As a matter of interest, the patent for your Safety Lamp, was for a design to extinguish the lamp in the event of it being knocked over.





There is a link to the US patent via the Google Patent search here.

The Hinks Safety Lamps are quite sort after, particularly if it still has the original weight fitted, as these can go missing.
You got yours for an absolute steal, as I have seen just the weight alone go for much more than you paid.

I hope you get much enjoyment from it.
Cheers, Bob

[KWIL]

Wakefield 1945 lamp recently sold on E***, described as WW2 Military Railway Lamp

[Phil]

Thank you for the fascinating information. Off back to the shop at the weekend as they had some others and I have the bug now...