A beautiful Swedish lantern! It's hard to give her an exact age, but the control knob wheel is not yet plastic, nor Bakelite, but rather made of Pertinax or pressed cardboard. According to the remarks of Nils Stephenson, a great Radius specialist on CPL, it should correspond to the years 1930-1940. It seems that this lamp is rather rare, maybe less so than the 106. In any case, it is in remarkable condition, and after cleaning and restoration (NRV, pump gasket) it appears to be in perfect working order; I was surprised by the attention to detail, even on the nozzle, engraved "103"! No possible mistake... The color of the lampshade is difficult to define: at first glance, one might think it is black, but it is rather midnight blue; if anyone knows the answer... All that remains is to light it, which I often hesitate to do after all this time spent restoring it to like-new condition. A pleasure for the eyes...
That's in very nice condition and is looking good. Well done. I have seen a French Radius brochure from 1937 that shows Radius' Petromax style models and calls them new models, so I assume the 103 was introduced in the second half of the 1930s. The one you have must be the first variation. I had always assumed the top hat on these early models was black, but maybe there was some variation in colouring between batches. You will need to adjust the gap to the mixing tube before you light it.
Thank you Nils for these clarifications. Indeed, the gap between the J-tube and the nozzle seems significant, and I will certainly need to reduce it if I have to light the lamp.
From looking at the picture, I would say you need to increase the gap. It should be about 14mm. Like most other 300cp PX style lamps.
