BulbCollector Forums
BULB DISCUSSION BOARDS => Antique Bulb Discussion => Topic started by: Nick D. on January 09, 2009, 09:24:42 pm
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I've had this lamp in my collection for a very long time (can't even remember where I got it! :oops:) and I've never bothered to pay much attention to it... Now, I notice that all of the (simliar) lamps listed in the gallery are of Austrian make. Mine is Japanese. Is that particularly special?? *hopeful*
http://bulbcollector.com/gateway/Incandescent_Lamps/Figurals/Lanterns_and_Streetlights
I have another question as well - I once saw the red one of these on ebay (NIB condition) and the seller gave the lamp a solid date of 1908, far from the 'ca. 1930's' listing in the gallery... which is correct? The box in the ad was quite a bit different but the manufacturer was the same.
http://bulbcollector.com/gateway/Incandescent_Lamps/Figurals/Lanterns_and_Streetlights/image/fg0029.jpg&img=&tt=
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There?s nothing ?solid? about the 1908 date for this bulb ? it?s off by at least twenty years.
A design patent was issued to Alfred Weber (an Austrian living in New York at the time) in 1927 for the design of a lantern shaped incandescent lamp (http://bulbcollector.com/gateway/Patent_Archive/Incandescent_Lamp_Patents/Design_Patents/image/0d0073393.pdf). Just one year later, another strikingly similar design patent (http://bulbcollector.com/gateway/Patent_Archive/Incandescent_Lamp_Patents/Design_Patents/image/0d0075546.pdf) was issued to Abraham L. Buschman on June 19th, 1928. Buschman held numerous patents from the 1920s through the 1950s, mostly related to decorative lighting and Christmas lighting. During the 1930s and 1940s the New York Merchandise Company sold numerous items under the ?Reliance? name such as Christmas lighting sets and decorative shaped bulbs based around the patents of Buschman. Though not supported by evidence (yet), it?s my assumption that the company probably imported their figural bulbs from more than one of the countries that produced them (the most common being Austria, Japan and Germany). This being said, it?s probably not unusual to find this lantern bulb with the ?JAPAN? mark on the base. I have quite a few large figurals from different countries that look virtually identical, almost as if these different producers used the same mold.
What I find interesting are the two design patents mentioned above that were issued only a year apart from one another. The designs are very similar in appearance. Below are photos that you can compare. The first one shown is the 1927 Weber patent and the second is the 1928 Buschman patent assigned to the New York Merchandise Co. (Reliance).
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There?s nothing ?solid? about the 1908 date for this bulb ? it?s off by at least twenty years.
Thanks, Tim! I guess you realize that patents aren't the most definitive things in the world - something doesn't necessarily have to be patented to exist! I think this is what makes research on antiques so interesting - no single piece of information is never really guaranteed 100%, we just assume that it is. I'm not trying to contradict you, I'm just putting that out there for all...