Separate manufacturer sections under Chinese in the Reference Gallery?

I don't know if this is even possible, but could the Chinese section of the Reference Gallery be split by manufacturer?

As some of you may know (or have guessed) I've got a bit of a Chinese lantern collection going on, so I admit my request is partly due to self-interest as it would be easier to find what I'm looking for, but also it seems a little 'off' that the Chinese section is split into 'Anchor' and then just 'Others' when I'm farily sure there are several other countries with far fewer individual manufacturers that have been split by manufacturer sub-sections.

Regards
@ColinG

 

I think some brands are well enough represented to have their own section.

 

Excellent news!

 

Ross

Will you follow Neil’s PLC for the listings?

Tony

 

I do not know how much work it is to make a subsection but even that there is only one entry it should be a subsection for that brand, at least in my mind.

Michael

 

Everyone will have their opinion I'm sure, but I would have thought that individual manufacturers might include:
Anchor
Unimet
Ashflash
Egret
Red Heart
Light Brand
Golden Globe
Solar
Santrax

...and others.

 

@ColinG

Some of those names are manufacturers and some (at least one on first glance) is a brand name from one of the listed manufacturers.

I was suggesting following @Mackburner’s authoritative PLC as a guide to establishing the categories.

Cheers

Tony

 

Sounds perfect... and thanks again for taking my suggestion seriously.

 

Good idea. My copy is 9 years old though so I'll be relying on you guys to check my work!

 

I suppose that proves you’re not a closet “lampie”.

Cheers

Tony

 

Butterfly - a few listings under China but PLC has it as Singapore. Advice please! @Mackburner

Cheers

 

I've had a look at the new sections and it's really useful! Thanks for your hard work.

 

@spiritburner
The original Butterfly is made in Indonesia by the Singapore based company Lea Hin Co. (Pte) Ltd.

Then there is the Butterfly brand that is made by Cixi Sea Anchor Pressure Lantern Co. Ltd.

Regarding Lea Hin there is no relationship between these two brands.

The Chinese Butterfly is, to what I know, only a ”rebranded” Sea Anchor.

They have now three brands, Sea Anchor, Butterfly and also Anchor since Shanghai Pressure Lantern Company closed down.

Usually the Singapore/Indonesian Butterfly has a green butterfly on the glass chimney but the Chinese Butterfly is in white.

To what I know some of the parts on the original Butterfly are not interchangeable with the Chinese lantern.

Also many parts on the original Butterfly lantern is marked ”Butterfly” which the Chinese one is not.

Michael

 

@Mackburner

See Ross’s question about Butterfly.

Tony

 

Tony, Ross did already tag Neil.
No need to spam the poor guy.

 

Would the Campway Sundowner and the Roody go in the AFC section?

 

Woops... sorry.

 

I need some help with that. Campway listed as it's own entry & Roody not mentioned in my 2009 PLC

 

It's not Roody. It's Roddy.
It's listed as a Hong Kong lantern; "as Ashflash 1022".
I doubt that it's a good idea to put every obscure brand that's listed in the PLC as a section of its own. It will be too many sub-foras in my opinion.

And when you're ready with China, I think we need France to be sorted out
And India.
And probably a few more.

 

It's Wierd... I thought 'Roddy' but typed 'Roody'!

Oh, and I have a display problem in the individual sections...

 

France started - please keep an eye an my work guys! New territory for me here!

 

I can tell you that your work is very much appreciated!

 

Sorted - it's a bug with the code I have to work around when I create new galleries. I didn't 'work around' well enough!

 

AFC is an American brand and Nomad is Australian. I am not sure where Roddy were sold. We think the manufacturer is Unimet in Hong Kong but I don't have confirmation of that. The PLC lists lamps by brand not manufacturer and sometimes, as in the case of AshFlash and Nomad, the owner of the brand is not the maker. So not a problem for me but for the galleries do we list by brand or maker?


I was not aware there were two Butterfly brands BUT are we sure the Chinese brand is not part of Lea Hin. They certainly have the TingKwon factory in HK and as far as I know a factory in mainland China as well.


The PLC is slightly lacking with info on Chinese product. I probably have all the brands listed but I am not so good with the manufacturers and in a few cases all I can say is "Chinese". I could probably do with some help with that but I won't accept rumour I need evidence. I need to see the paper and also examples of the lamps to show the differences.


We always did know the galleries would have to be split at some stage but that should perhaps be driven by the numbers of each featured brand rather than a desire to separate regardless. So France will certainly split well but India? There are a lot of obscure lamps from there and many as single examples. There is another country with a huge number of brands that we mostly never see and that is Thailand. I am now listing 23 Thai brands and there are more to come yet but I doubt we will ever have to split the gallery since most of the brands were only ever sold in Thailand. ::Neil::

 

@Mackburner
Regarding an answer from Lea Hin when I asked them about the Chinese brand, Butterfly, they told me that they had nothing to do with their company.

It sounded that they did not wanted to have anything to do with them at all.

Michael

 

OK so I will need to separate the two then. Show me the evidence please. I had hoped by now to have a much better grasp of Chinese production from Bo Keller but it never happened so I am still to a certain extent floudering. ::Neil::

 

Neil @Mackburner,
I am sorry that I can not verify what I have said.

My mail program crashed last year with the loss of all of my old e-mails since over 10 years back so the mail conversation with Lea Hin is gone.

So what we need is to contact them again and ask this question.

Michael

 

Yes, that was the general idea initially, and I think it still is valid.
No need for a separate gallery when it's only one single lamp posted from that maker, or perhaps not even one, but as soon as they reached a certain amount, we should split them to galleries of their own.

 

Well Neil, I have to say your 'floundering' is very much appreciated!

Unfortunately I will soon have another headache for you as I have purchased a brand new Sea Anchor lantern and having looked around I cannot find a photographic example on CPL, not that I have done an extensive search. It has been purchased from the manufacturer (apparently) so whatever documentation I recieve with it I will pass on to you.

Sea Anchor have an attrocious reputation so it will be very interesting to see if the reality matches the bad reviews. Watch this space!

 

I think maybe Ashflash should be listed under USA, albeit with a note to the maker. Manufacturer is the preferred categorisation but if a brand exists in it's own right such as Ashflash that subs out to a manufacturer should the brand not be listed under it's home country?