Around [Part of] the World in 10 Lamps, Episode 2

Welcome back, my intrepid adventurers! How was your siesta? Revitalizing, I hope. There are five more stops on this journey, and I'm not leaving any of you behind! If you're reading this and have absolutely no idea what I am talking about, it's because you missed the first half of this Lamp World adventure/exhibition. Scroll down to the previous entry, you scallywag! You've gotta earn your stripes before you get this far into the trip.

IF THAT APPLIES TO YOU: SCROLL DOWN UNTIL YOU SEE THE POST BELOW THIS ONE NOW.


Did you see those guys trying to cut in on our expedition? Unbelievable. Anyways, where were we? Oh right, leaving Spain.

Here is our handy-dandy map again, for those of you who had one too many glasses of wine last night in Spain and forgot where we were:

Our first stop today is: Italy

Ahh, the [most recent of my] motherland[s] calls me home (don't be offended, Persia, Turkey, etc. You're beautiful too). Okay let's focus on this lamp:

First of all, how cute is this!? It's a little teapot-shaped oil lamp! Here are the known details provided by the NMHFM, Kurt Pralle (Collection Donor), and David Bunk (Appraiser): Possibly from Northern Italy, most likely a reproduction [no explanation as to why]; small brass oil lamp shaped like a tea pot with a hook at the top. Lid still opens. In good condition. Worth $20. Wait, what!? Yeah, you heard me: $20 (Mom, I'm looking at you, because I know this lamp is probably calling your name--and no, I will not abscond with it for you).
And that's about it. Next stop?

Our seventh stop on this trip is: Austria

This is a Sicilian Tunnel Lamp from Carinthia, Austria; the southern-most state, and therefore, close to Italy. The rooster on top is called a "Good Luck Cock" according to Pralle, and the lamp is appraised at $250. There are letters behind it, maybe the name of the maker, but only a few of the letters are legible.

Alrighty, let's hop on over to Germany

There were many German lamps in this collection, and many of them looked pretty similar. Here, we have a miner's closed frog lamp made of iron, appraised at $250. This one, however, stood out from the rest. The lock/fastener that allows the hinged lid to be opened was the only one of its kind in the collection (and it still works--I tried it)!

Getting tired? Too bad, no siesta today! We only have two more stops, come on. Next, we have: England

Appraised at $150, this is a safety lamp made of some kind of unspecified metal and glass around the wick chamber. The metal plate (right-most picture above) has "Klampet N C B" on it, and the glass (center picture above) has "MP British 58 x 60". The band around the middle has the number "235" on it. I am going to investigate more into the brand/maker/patent of this particular lamp, but you can click here to get a brief overview of safety lamps and why they were necessary (there's a good reason they are called SAFETY lamps)!

We have made it to our tenth and final stop on our tour. The only problem is that I don't know where this stop actually is. It's . . . somewhere. We aren't sure where this lamps is from, but here it is:

This lamp was pretty unique within the collection. According to the information provided by Pralle, it is a brass miner's open oil lamp with three indents for wicks ($100 appraisal; Bunk identifies it as a household lamp). The design and decor is what makes it more eye-catching than many of the other open tray oil lamps in the collection. I'd love to find out where and when this one came from since it appears so different from the others. Its scalloped edges make me think of a ramekin and I want to bake a mini peach cobbler in it.


Well that concludes our adventure (for now). I'm probably going to do a little more digging about these ten lamps when I get some time to. I don't know about you, but I'm tired! One last word on appraisals: we need to keep in mind that they were done back in 2007 by a man with experience in minerals and mining collectibles. It is, therefore, possible that at least some these lamps may be worth a little more than the original estimate, particularly many of those from Episode 1 of our trip. Now, let's all go home to our own beds. I know where to find you for our next excursion into the museum world :)