G'day all, I would say after reflecting back on my early days (first 18 months perhaps) of collecting, that my biggest regret isn't the amount of *lamps I collected, it was the lack of variety and money spent on the same type of lamp over and over. Of course, money isn't an issue with some collectors, therefore to them, my advice is unnecessary. I have always been a collector with a small budget. *When using the term "lamps", I generally use it as an inclusive term. Lamps may be lanterns, table lamps, gravity lamps, Donut lamps etc, etc. If I use the term "lantern" or "table lamp" it is specific to that type of lamp. In my part of the world, finding post war, Handi, Austramax, Tilley, Kayen and Aladdin lanterns is like shooting fish in a barrel. They are easy to find and relatively cheap. When I first began collecting, I would buy lanterns like it might be the last time I ever saw one for sale. I now know other lanterns of the common variety will come along and urge new collectors to understand that and not always buy the next lantern that is available. If a lamp comes along and it is a bit battered and or expensive, I'd pass on it and wait until another one comes along that may be in better nick and cheaper. If money does matter, rather than acquiring the next two Guardsmen you see, perhaps save the money and when a different model of Tilley comes along, perhaps a Late X246 Pork Pie, you have a war chest to acquire it. If you are to buy another X246 series lamp, try to find a different variety to the one you already have. For instance, there are three types of Pork Pie lanterns. If you study the The Lamp Reference Gallery | Classic Pressure Lamps & Heaters you will be able to learn the differences between lanterns. There will be glaringly obvious differences but there are many nuances such as stampings or the lack of stampings or very minor changes. Saving money by not buying the same model over and over will help build a war chest for when the unexpected rarer type comes along. How do you know what a rarer type is? Study the gallery, that will help but also reading the forum will be a good source of information. Variety: Part 1 In the Budget section above I mentioned variety. I was referring to the variety of models within a manufacturers series of lamps (differing lamps with the same Model No) but also within a manufacturers range of lamps (differing Model No's) I'd like to speak about the variety of manufacturers in this section. At my last rough count of my own lamp inventory, from memory, I owned lamps from 70 different manufacturers. That number will have grown. A rough count in the Great Britain | Classic Pressure Lamps & Heaters shows 25 or so manufacturers. It can get befuddled a bit because some manufacturers manufactured lamps not only for themselves but for other companies too, sometimes the same lamp but different name. Some manufacturers used designs of contemporaries, Stanleys & AGM - American Gas Machine also Akron 102G Lamp & Evening Star 92061 (Akron) So, if you have one, you essentially have the other. I don't count my list of manufacturers by doubling up. For instance I have an Evening Star, Kildark and Akron. I count them as individual manufacturers. If I had an Evening Star but didn't have an Akron nor Kildark, I would count that as 1 manufacturer. I urge new collectors to study the The Lamp Reference Gallery | Classic Pressure Lamps & Heaters and look at the various manufacturers lamps. There may be something that takes your eye and you can target attaining one of them specifically. There are collectors that just collect one brand such as Coleman | Classic Pressure Lamps & Heaters , The Tilley Lamp Co. | Classic Pressure Lamps & Heaters or Petromax | Classic Pressure Lamps & Heaters Variety: Part 2 There is more to collecting pressure lamps than just lanterns. There are Table Lamps, donut lamps, Outdoor, Suspension & Industrial | Classic Pressure Lamps & Heaters and lanterns, wall lamps, hanging lamps blah blah. By looking through the galleries, you will find an amazing assortment of lamp classes and then an amazing assortment within that class of lamps. Variety: Part 3. I think I am correct in saying that CPL is mostly focused on self contained portable pressure lighting. There are other forms of pressure lighting that you may not be aware of now that may interest you later. By pointing them out you will have the opportunity to explore those types and see if they are something you may be interested in. Gravity Lamps - all makes are one of my collecting passions as is hollow wire lamps and systems. Gravity lamps have a tank higher than the burner and fuel feeds down to the burner by the pressure of gravity. Hollow wire lamps are fed by a remote tank. The tank can be as remote as sitting right next to or above the lamp to being outside the building as to where the lamp is situated. The lamps and the tank are connected with hollow copper tubing. Under pressure, the fuel is fed to the lamps. Hollow wire lamps, from my experience, are generally more powerful and produce better light than a lantern or table lamp. Many gravity lamps are too. Hollow wire and gravity lamps were one of the earliest forms of mantle lighting that got us here to the present day. The early ones were upright mantle lamps and I think they (upright mantle) may be the brightest of them all. The following photos are from a pair of Gloria Light Co hollow wire lamps I have. I have built a frame that I can place my lamps on and then test light them. Sometimes (last two photos) I light them away from the frame. I think it would be marvellous to one day have a working hollow wire lamp attached to the ceiling of a room. I'm not there yet.... I do hope someone may find this topic helpful. View attachment 76350 View attachment 76347 View attachment 76349 View attachment 76348 View attachment 76353 View attachment 76354
Some good advice there, Matty. The only thing I'd add is that if anyone sends $20 US to Neil McRae (Mackburner), they will get in return an on-line a copy of the Pressure Lamp Catalogue (PLC) which is, effectively, Neil's life work and contains everything he knows about pressure lamps, which is A LOT - I daresay Neil has forgotten more about pressure lamps than I'll ever know! It's bang up-to-date and kept so by being amended frequently (several times a year) as new information comes to light. Probably the best $20 anyone here will spend on the hobby...
David, I had it in my head to do exactly as you said. When I wrote the part about how do you know if a lamp is rare, I thought I'd add @Mackburner at the end of the piece and describe his PLC. My old brain is worse than ever, it leaks so bad I can't keep enough going in to replace the loss. David, thanks for supporting the ideas in this topic. The reason I thought I'd write it now is because it is clear people are looking for hobbies to deal with the time they have on their hands now. I expect more and more new members are going to join the site and get the bug. I'm just trying to help them cut some corners and possibly save their time and money until they find a direction in lamp collecting to take. When I joined this site, I had essentially never heard of Coleman nor Tilley or any other manufacturer. I'd bought a Kayen lamp and wanted to learn something about it. I knew LPG lamps used mantles, I never had a clue petrol or kerosene lamps did not that I knew petrol or kerosene pressure lamps existed. It is because of my city life that had a stable electricity grid that we never needed emergency lighting. kerosene heating was done but they were wick jobs and certainly not pressure. I can recall vowing to never own a petrol lamp once I joined this forum. The thought of me putting my less than perfect body on the line and hold a flame to a petrol device - not a chance. Now petrol is my preferred fuel of choice. If I had of had confidence from the get go, one or two very nice lamps may be with me now instead of other collectors I pointed them out too
Thank you to all. It wasn't an easy decision to put my thoughts on an open forum. So many collectors have their own way of doing things and I respect all their methods. If I have outlined a different path to one that they were happy take, I don't mean to imply their way is the wrong way. I certainly wouldn't mind if any other collector wished to add their relative thoughts if they think by adding them it will help out a 'newbie' Those thoughts don't have to align with mine. I'm not for a second stating everything I said is correct for every collector or even any collector. My main object was to help collectors save money because once the bug bites, we all know how that goes. Most often we buy anything in sight and many have at least some regrets later. By pointing out the different types of lighting, some may be getting a good head start from the get go, if they find that type of lighting collecting is for them. I wish I had of known about hollow wire lighting and gravity lamps from the get go. Even once I knew about hollow wire lighting, it was intimidating as most of it is petrol lighting, something I admitted to being initially uncomfortable with. There aren't many collectors that collect hollow wire lamps and understand them as they do portable pressure lamps. Now days, there are a few of us with a fair bit of experience and I'm sure most of those collectors, like me, would be happy to lend a hand to anyone that asked for advice.
I love philosophical (and practical) threads like this! Plus, if I had thought more about this, I wouldn't have 29 Coleman 236 lanterns clogging my storage shelves in the garage. Some really interesting directions for a collection to take, and I know my interests are pre-50's lamps and stoves. Being in Canada, the bulk of my collection is Coleman, but anything UK I snap up because I see so very little of it. It's unfortunate that shipping is so costly, as boy, do I have a Coleman 200/242/236/237/327/335 for you! The fact I have these in quantity goes back to many of Matty's points--in the beginning I bought everything I saw that was reasonable in price. Sigh... May I suggest a "Variety: Part 4"? Accessories! I like funnels and I cannot lie... Mike.
Sure, I will write something up and ask @Carlsson to add it to the opening post. I don't mind if you would like to write a Variety part 4. If anyone wants to add a section or ideas, I'm sure Christer wouldn't mind adding those ideas or suggestions to the opening post in the topic.
Great read thanks Matty, being a newcomer to the hobby I can completely relate having clocked up several Tilley’s, Vapalux, Bialaddin lamps in only a couple of months and even after the first few I realised it was going to get repetitive unless I branched out. I’m probably at a bit of a weird point now where I barely have any knowledge/experience and am still developing the skills but have acquired a couple of lamps (Coleman 327 and a Focus 01) that are probably fairly common to you guys but I’m on such a steep learning curve now with both. My early efforts were such a good intro as there is so much information out there about the Tilley’s etc and the spares are easily found. The rarer ones are really interesting but are taking some figuring out! I’m still not convinced the Coleman can possibly have so few seals in it! I also need to find a solution to having no globe in the Focus and finding something that will allow me access to light it. Has got me completely riveted! But agree, there is only so much shelf space for yet another Guardsman variation but moving to the slightly rarer/older takes some doing. Totally worth it though!
It takes patience and a degree of self control. If money isn't a concern, buy everything you see - then, where do you put them all? Networking is a way of finding lamps you may not normally find in your locale. Place an ad in the Trading Post. You may find some Americans willing to do trades - say Coleman, AGM, Nulite, etc, for Tilley or other manufacturers lamps you can find readily and cheap in your area. It may pay for you to pick up that descent looking lamp you are looking at if it is the right price because that lamp, with a little horse trading, may become one of the other American manufacturers I previously mentioned. You don't have to limit yourself to America, I just used that as an example.
I had not really considered trading as a way of acquiring the foreign ones, I like it though! I could keep busy with a couple of duplicate local traders until the right opportunity presents! Oh no, there’s more levels to this than I thought!!
Those are good points. If I find duplicate lamps/lanterns/heaters at a reasonable price then I obtain them, they can be useful as trade items and they are handy to strip for spares, but since the last auction house closed here there has been very little turning up, so I have been restoring any spare lamps etc., to working order and I have even restored most of the spare parts which I have.
