G'day all, If someone knows when Tilley started their Vase lamp range and would let me know that would be much appreciated.
I recall 1925, but I'm happy to be contradicted. I'll dig out Jim Dick's book if I can find it. Cheers Tony
Jim Dick says they were advertised in late 1924 as the "latest Tilley lamp novelty". They were still a "novelty" in 1929:- http://classicpressurelamps.com/index.php?threads/2294 I'm not sure what gallery is fitted to that one in the advert so perhaps there's some artistic licence in play or use of an earlier image to save the cost of new artwork. I'd have thought the bat-wing burner would have been the normal fitment in 1929:- In case anyone's wondering, the shade is original Tilley as shown on p22 of Jim Dick's book...
Thanks for the replies. As usual, I'm pretty clueless on this type of subject. The reason I asked was I saw an advertisement for a vase lamp from 1936. I thought that was early for vase lamps. Again, as usual, how wrong I was.
It would seem that 1936 is quite late for a vase lamp, Matty - they were in the 1939 catalogue but didn't appear after the war as far as I'm aware, so late 1924-1939 for all colours except black which appeared later in the production period. This included the Depression years in the UK and these lamps at £4.7s.6d I think it was (or £4.38 as we'd have it today) must have been well beyond the means of ordinary folk. I presume relatively few were made and sold and even fewer remain today. Anybody fancy selling me one...
Thanks again David. Your point about the depression years is very valid. I think it was tough enough to sell low end lamps and almost impossible to sell high end lamps in quantities that allowed them to be seen today in the 'wild' unless you are extremely fortunate.
Bumping this old thread. I've just looked through a 1938 Tilley catalogue that has the Black vase listed in it. It's the first mention of the black vase that I can find. The 1937 catalogue has only the five other colours listed, not the black vase. Cheers Tony
Thanks, Tony - so 1924-1939 for all colours except black which was 1938-1939. That would explain why black is so rare compared with the other colours - which we're not exactly tripping over here, either...
I knew where there was a pink one but never managed to prise it out of its owner's grip! I never got anywhere near a black one. I eventually got a crimson one - the same year as some jammy git found a crimson vase at Newark autojumble for a fiver! The best I could manage - 4 out of 6 - not bad...
What, and you didn’t offer me the chance to buy the crimson one? I guess you had a waiting list for them.
At least it was just the vase, a complete one would have been too much. Also, don’t forget that wasn’t the only one I found that week. Ive got one of those silk shades here too, I’ve not risked lighting the lamp with it fitted yet.
