Wanted   Do you have a passion for antiques and collectibles - and writing?   The Wayback Times invites you to submit freelance articles for use in print and on our new web site.   E-mail your text submissions to The Wayback Times.   Articles published in The Wayback Times since 1995 have covered a wide range of interests, from Golliwoggs to toy VW collecting, and from collecting insulators to hunting old books.   Most authors of our online selection of articles have included their e-mail addresses and they are always delighted to hear from other collectors.

Ad Rates / Articles / Classified Ads / Editorial / Home / Links / Showtime   Kerosene lamps sooth the tense    List Hyla Wults Fox Next   Kerosene oil lamps can be therapudic   By Hyla Wults Fox Not only can antique kerosene oil lamps be the dazzling focal point of a room, but they are even more spectacular when lit and used.   As Mary Phillips, a Toronto collector said: "sometimes, when I have one of "those" days, I pour a glass of wine and plop myself in front of a couple of lamps. Watching the tiny flames dance somehow drains all the stress away. To me, these beautiful lamps are instant, non-medicinal tranquilizers.”   Besides providing a calming effect, they lend a certain aura to the environment that candles don't ever manage to attain. Dinner parties and private summer soirees, for example, display a certain sophistication, elegance and romantic ambiance when lit by oil lamps. Others, like Phillips, enjoy the fact that they are functional and don't have to be stored away because of their fragile natures.   Whatever the reasons for collecting, pickings are excellent in Ontario and stock is available in many shops and at antique shows. Compared to the United States, our lamps are quite affordable. Americans have a strong passion for oil lamps and pieces that don't sell quickly here, because there isn't a large collector base, often get shipped to the United States where dealers usually get more than their asking price in Canada.   Oil lamps have great long term investment potential, especially if they are signed by the manufacturer, identified in books and made in North America. A patent date, often found on the lamp base, also helps increase the value.   Interestingly, oil lamps have not been around that long. They began appearing in 1860 about the time the first commercial oil wells were drilled. Before that, illumination was exclusively provided by burning candles, lard, whale oil or gas.   Credit for the discovery of kerosene goes to Dr. Abraham Gesner, a physician and geologist from Nova Scotia, who, in 1846 demonstrated the benefits of coal oil, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island but did not patent his discovery until 1854.   Although a small amount of oil was found in Petrolia, Ontario, the major break came in 1859 when a huge, cheap supply of oil was found in Pennsylvania.   Catharine Thuro, author of three excellent books on kerosene lamps, claims this discovery was "more dramatic than the gold rush" because it put North America instantly into the kerosene era. It was cleaner, safer and burned brighter than anything used before.   "There were many established lamp manufacturers in place. In late 1859, as soon as the oil discovery was publicized, all the lamp companies could easily switch to the production of kerosene lamps and many were doing so by 1860, shipping millions of lamps, according to export records, all over the world.”   Curiously, most of the lamps and the glass were made in the Pittsburgh area which, coincidentally, is where the oil was discovered. While lamps were manufactured in other places such as in the New England area, England and the Continent, the bulk were created in the North Eastern corner of the United States.   The appearance of the lamps changed periodically, helping to date them. According to Thuro, a fellow of the prestigious Corning Museum in New York State and the doyenne of historical lighting in North America, "planned obsolescence has provided us with distinctive lamps for every decade of the Kerosene Era.”   Thuro's research indicates that the 1860s and 70s bases and fonts (the font is the part used to hold the oil) were often sold separately and "could have been put together by wholesaler, retailer or by the customer. A broken part may also have been replaced with one having a different colour or design. These factors may explain why some rather strange combinations occur and relatively few identical combinations are found today.”   Some highly sought-after lamps of the 1860-70 period were made from a cased or overlay glass. A spectacular effect was achieved by grinding designs through the outer surfaces of two or more layers of glass. Wide-angle lenses that focus on the interior of the lamp were thus created, giving a multi-mirrored effect.   During the late 1880s and 1890s, lamps became even fancier. Bases often featured opalescent, opaque or alabaster glass, which was translucent with flecks or a granular appearance. Gradually from that point into this century, lamps and shades were often made with white opalescent accents and patterns, particularly spots and stripes.   All-glass lamps, made with mold-blown fonts fused to a pressed-glass base, were the most common. Hundreds of early all-glass patterns have been recorded. Most were colourless. Today these are the least expensive. Coloured lamps are the examples most coveted by advanced collectors.Green, canary yellow, blue and cranberry were made during the 1860-1900 period and are typically the ones fetching the highest prices.   The use of fully automated glass-making machines and the threat that electric lights would make kerosene lamps obsolete contributed to the deterioration in their design and quality. By the turn of the 20th century, production had greatly slowed down. But the kerosene era lingered in parts of rural Canada. In her research, Thuro, who bought her first oil lamp at a weekend flea market in the Thorncliffe Park area of Toronto in 1970, found that as "late as the 1950s antique dealers traded new lamps for old, following hydro crews as the network of power lines reached out to farms across the country."   If you have a vintage oil lamp and plan to use it, here are a few tips, one of which Mary Phillips would not have discovered had her dad not been around to offer advice. Phillips could not keep the wick lit, even though it had been neatly trimmed Her father saved the day when he demonstrated how to cut the wick properly, a task he learned more than seventy years prior, as a child doing chores in the old country:   "I watched him cut the wick in an inverted U shape so that the corners were shorter than the centre portion. After that, I had no problem keeping the flame lit.”   Other suggestions include making certain the wick is the same width as the wick tube and is thick enough to fill the wick tube, protruding just slightly above the burner. Refined lamp oil, available in most hardware stores should be used as it is cleaner than ordinary kerosene. Most of all, always keep safety in mind. Don't leave the lamp lit when you are out of the room.   Beyond all this, consider giving oil lamps as wedding or engagement gifts because they bespeak warmth and a unique link to our past. Or, you could use them as Mary Phillips does, for relaxation purposes after a long day's work. But the bottom line is that they really do make a decorating statement and would create a sensational, to-die-for-centre-piece.   No doubt with all of us thinking of ways to conserve energy, the thought of a lamp-lit evening every now and again will become a favourite pastime for many of us.   For decades, the career of Hyla Wults Fox has been driven by the whimsical world of antiques and collectibles. She had a column, about antiques and collectibles in the Saturday Toronto Star and later was the feature antique specialist for the Globe and Mail. Her work has also appeared in dozens of glossy Canadian, general-interest magazines as well as in many North American specialized antique journals.   The author of two books about antiques, published by Methuen, Canada, and Dundurn Press, she has also been a guest on numerous TV and radio programs. She can be reached by writing to: hyla@hylafox.com.   Return to top of page   This Is Livin' Publishing © 2009 581 8th Line West, RR1 Hastings, ON, K0L 1Y0 Phone/Fax: 705-696-1833   webmaster