This came to me in non-working but more or less complete but very gunked-up condition. Includes the early doohickey that stops the pricker control knob at full travel or bottom and cut-out collar to accomodate same. Marked T29 on bottom, this grand old man does not look ever to have been nickel plated, but rather started life as brass. Doubt the glass is original, but it’s old based on some large inclusions. Soldered onto the fount is, I suppose, a distributor’s seal. Some ironmonger in England, I reckon. Mansfield. A tough and grizzled survivor, this lantern still blows a hurricane — enough to rip right through a cheap Tilley-style mantle upon first firing. It now is driving a double-tie 500 cp HK mantle, which is tough enough to contain its flame, and is doing a creditable job of it, at that. In short, quite a nifty find, lots of fun to fettle, and one I’ll be proud to own and use. And to think — only six years short of the century mark. Made in year of the great Wall Street crash here in the USA — imagine the stories these lanterns could tell & the history they’ve witnessed. If this was in England the whole time, it survived some truly hideous events before landing on my bench. Ulf
Nice! Having the brass seller’s plate is a great feature. It says “Blake & ?”. What is the second name? Tony
Nice find Ulf and the retailers plate is a nice added feature. It must be from quite early in 1929 as the stops for the cleaning wheel are normally not fitted in 1929. The glass could be an early replacement as the most common configuration of the brass version was with a mica globe. It could also be something the retailer did.
That's pretty interesting about Blake & Beeley Ironmongers, still presumably (at least in 1996) ironmongering away. It would be intriguing to take the lantern in and tell them it needed a service. I might put a mica chimney on it -- a brass one -- I think that'd be cool. Rob Butts makes terrific chimneys in brass. Ulf.
