Lantern collecting 'eras'

I've been pondering this for some time but I suspect us collectors have gone through distinct eras of collecting. There must have been a time when lamps were considered absolutely worthless - pointless, smelly relics that no-one would ever want. It must have been an amazing time, when you could wander around junk shops and pick up tidy, little used models for very little money.

When I started about 5 years ago you could find nice lamps at what I then considered reasonable prices, and sad, neglected basket cases for a few quid relatively speaking. Now however, even rusty, damaged lanterns are fetching silly money and people seem to be buying them!

What happened before 5 years ago I can't say, but if I've noticed the change in a mere 5 years I'm sure those if us who started earlier must have noticed how the market has fluctuated.

Also, where you find lamps must have changed over time as well.

 

I started collecting casually about 15 years ago. In 2010 I spied a L316 Coleman Arc lantern in an auction advertized on the internet in a city 1.5 hours away. It was dusty and globeless, but otherwise complete, and quite respectable looking. The auction was very well-attended. I started the bidding at $30, one half-hearted response, and it was mine for $50. A similar situation 2 years later netted me a matte-black painted Sunshine Safety 319 for $75! Those were the good-ol' days, by-cracky! (said in the voice of an old-timey Hollywood movie goldminer) I'm quite certain I'll never see it again judging by the average condition Coleman Canada 228B that sold for $211 on a local auctioneer's online auction site.

The internet as information/price evaluator, eBay auctions, auction companies going online, building-instant-collections-at-any-price as a hobby for some has certainly changed the hobby. But that happens in pretty much any hobby so I'll make do with my embarrassing backlog of lanterns/lamps/stoves/irons to restore and keep having fun.

Mike.

 

Lamps etc., which I obtained for a few quid over 26 years ago are now selling for many hundreds of pounds and some even top a £1000.

 

You have the internet, and places like eBay to thank for these high prices!

When I started collecting around 40 years ago there was no internet or eBay and it was judgement; well, it's a Dietz Monarch wick lantern and no one wants it so let's sell it for say $3 or 5 maybe... what do you pay now for a crap Monarch lantern?!! Ridiculous!

You could find lanterns at yard sales (car boot sales) and antique shops, or someone's old barn!

A lot of the high prices you have the internet to thank for. There are more books available, too. A lot of them give "ball park" prices, and just the fact there's a book devoted to lantern collecting tells you someone out there is interested.

If anyone is familiar with a Dietz Crystal lantern, glass bottom, generally used by contractors, I picked one up in great condition for around $25 or $30 about 30 years ago at an antique mall and thought it was too much even after I got a 10% discount! Just look at the prices they get for them now!!

 

I've not been collecting for that long. Some decades back, when I wasn't a collector yet, lanterns were still in rather common use. There were hardly any collectors as pressure lamps were not regarded as collectibles. The older unused lanterns would either end up neglected in a barn, store or somewhere out of sight to collect dust. Some were left outside to rust and tarnish away. Nobody seemed to want them.
Once the owner of the premise or house felt that these are taking too much precious space or too unsightly to bear, a lot of them would end up in the scrap yard to be destroyed or recycled. Not so many were retrieved to be sold in antique or 'junk' shops because nobody here would ever pay to own some recently scrapped junk, which were often seen as 'refuse or rubbish'. Segregation of waste was not practised yet and these metal junks were just scrapped together with some messy food waste.
About a decade later, I started too see some of them in antique or junk shops and these hardly ever fetched more than the equivalent of two or three US dollars. The owners of the shops were usually more than happy to rid off those seemingly 'unsellable' stuffs.
Then, approximately from the last decade onwards, prices rose exponentially. I started to collect a few during this time. A lot of the older rusted or tarnished 'unwanted' pieces began to make their debut as some overzealously polished brass or metal. Coincidentally, this was when a lot of pressure lamp-related Forums started to appear on the Internet. We started to know each other. So the resulting prices must be due to us.

 

That I'd say is accurate as I have been priced out of 2 other collecting hobbies just by that same change dynamic. In both it was the internet, forums and growth of popularity of the hobbies after years dormant that saw prices sky rocket for collectibles just like the lantern hobby. One hobby I had starting 2008 was wet shaving, that hobby grew exponentially compared to lanterns, into an industry . So lanterns make a 3rd hobby I am now priced out of . lol

This is a guess based on anecdotal evidence but with lanterns I wonder if the main hub of collecting has gone to Asia. I think lanterns from America, Britain, Europe are heading to Japan and Taiwan and possibly other Asian countries ? Hobbies are a middle class phenomenon and the Asian countries unlike a generation ago are now developed and have prosperous middle classes while America and Britain have declining middle classes and so sellers and buyers and the destination for lanterns may have changed.

 

Certainly a good proportion of the lamps I’ve sold have gone to Asia but with the cost of sending abroad rocketing recently perhaps more will stay in this country.

 

Many objects become collectible with age, pressure lamps are but just one of many items to assume collectible status.
The internet has made trading so much more accessible and immediate, this will of course promote the collecting and in turn push up prices.
I grew up in a garage business, some the cars that we scrapped back in the sixties and seventies would be worth huge amounts now. Back then, they were unwanted and valueless.
Time changes everything, takes the everyday and mundane and elevates their status to desirable and collectible. Ultimately it is all down to desire, even after less than two years of being infected by this sickness, there are lamps out there I’d love to own (I’d move heaven and earth to own a certain Tilley standard lamp that resides in Aberdeenshire!).

If you look hard enough and put in the leg work, there are still bargains to be had. Like everything in this world, it’s all down to effort. Happy hunting folks! Let’s hope we find the Petromax hanging lamps before Drew Pritchard gets his electrocuting mitts on them.

 

I started collecting in 2003 and already then the "old timers" said the good times were over. Compared to today, 2003 was the good times.

 

No blame intended just an answer to the above, but when you hear from some members on CPL, who have collections of 500 - 800 lamps it's hardly surprising that the 'bulk' of lamps that exist have already been acquired and reside with the relative few...we...(my collection is just 50) are our own worst energy and are responsible for increased rarity and prices.

 

Well, as someone with a large collection, I see myself as someone with altruistic motives who rescued all those lamps and lanterns from oblivion and preserved them for the younger generations.

If I (and a good few others) hadn't done this the lamps and lanterns on the market today would be even rarer - or genuinely rare at the very least. In any case, as you know, I'm perfectly willing to spread my collection amongst all other collectors...

 

I agree with some of that David, however, the value of these lamps is such that even Joe public knows 'enough' to realise that they have intrinsic value and not to just throw them away.
If I read you correctly, you are suggesting that if it wasn't for us these lamps would have been lost forever. Whilst that might be true for some of them I doubt it is as many as you imply.
Let's be honest with ourselves and admit that in the most part we are collecting these for ourselves. That process does mean preserving them for future generations but I for one admit that that thought comes somewhere down my list of priorities when it comes to buying these wonderful lamps.
That I guess is why we find it hard to part with them .. slightly selfish I admit but only being honest.

 

That may be true for you - but it isn't really that true for me.

That's why I'm always harping on about originality (anything is original only once), that you can't "restore" lanterns to what they never were, that I never light maiden lanterns which come into my possession and advise others who may ask, not to light the unlit ones they may acquire etc., etc. ad nauseam...

 

Wet shaving???
Anyway, there is probably some truth in all you say but... I still say the more ground you cover with something the more you see the price go up! All the media crap, the internet, better marketing techniques, it all leads to a wider audience with "deeper pockets"!

 

Ahhh. I’m a very new comer to the hobby, having started about 2 years ago and I agree that prices have gone crazy. As I said in another thread before, I was outbid on a Swedish auction site 3 times on Primus lamps that fetched between £300 and £600. I’m selling the odd lamp on eBay (when I have 2 or 3 of the same model and make) starting at £30 and they can end up fetching £150 if offered in working order. Finding bargains online is still possible but increasingly difficult. I found a very few where the seller had misspelt the name of the lamp, and the item Wasn’t listed Properly, shielding it from bidding wars. The best places to hunt for lamps remain house clearance depots and junk yards. I’m lucky enough to live near a few that deliver the goodies from time to time. Old people die and sheds get raided. The children don’t want any of the contents and they call an house clearance company. As for the hobby itself, well it’s addictive. How can it not be when you sit out In the garden with a beer admiring this view (tonight in the garden). The restored Primus 981 sits in the middle of two old Tilleys. 2 Hours in and no pressure loss!

 

Best operating pressure for he Primus seems to be 1.5 km/cm2 on the gauge.

 

Kilometres?

Tony

 

Oops. kg!
Tony, please bear in mind I’ve had 2 beers already!

 

Looks like something off a Christmas card...something very warm and comforting about the images.

Martin

 

@Alex74
Your 3 lantern picture is a beauty. Sitting and watching, experiencing the lampie fruits of your labour with a suitable beverage or 3.
Says it all really .........
Cheers
Pete

 

You all make great comments, but that is how things go, if its to hot in the kitchen, then get out of it, and make a fortune.
Well that's my 20 cents worth, and I am willing to take some off your collections of your hands, I'll put in for a second mortgage on the house haha.
Great topic

 

Thanks guys,

its easy to create a ‘warm welcoming’ atmosphere to enjoy your old lamps hissing away: Good company (friends, neighbours, family), a wooden shed, some red textiles dotted around, an old vimini chair, 3 bottles of your favourites brew (or at least one for each lantern lit on the night...). Preferably the lamps should be different makes and models..while the beers can be the same!

 

I totally agree with all that’s been said, and its true that even 2-3 years ago you could buy a half decent 246B for £20 or less, but not anymore, not been mentioned yet but I do believe the Covid lockdown also helped to push up prices. Meanwhile I’m sat out having a beer to the warm glow of a 246A. Cheers everyone

 

Malcolm,

that looks really nice. Cheers!

 

Cheers Malcolm
@malcolm race

 

@malcolm race
Oh that does look nice to me, but being a alcoholic in recovery, I will have to pass on the grog though.
The X246A looks fantastic in all it's glory, great amount of light, I hope the weather was good and you enjoyed yourself.

 

100% spot-on, and the same for auction houses, antiques, everything..not just lamps...

p.s. Great light-up there!

 

Yup, post and courier charges have nearly doubled for some locations! I'm not sure if it's actually justified or opertunistic profiteering!?

 

Spoke to several delivery drivers at the start of the lock-down (when all companies were warning about extended times due to the pandemic) and they were all very happy never been so busy...

 

That's what I heard too.... the post never stopped either and Amazon/eBay both did a roaring trade so someone must have made a profit!