Sometimes as luck has it you find a rare lantern that goes down as that lucky find. Late in 2024 I was visiting some garage sales that an entire local town was holding on the same day. I had found nothing at several sales I visited but on the last one I saw some old oil drums outside and in a shed of items, being mainly housewares, I spotted this one Tilley going for a fair price and I just said Yes. As I picked it up to go I thought it odd the hood was sitting high and didn't think much about it other than perhaps the vapouriser was bulged and stopping the hood from being seated correctly. I had a closer look a few days later with the intention of working on it, when I realised it had a 169 vapouriser. Not something you expect to find on a Tilley X246. 'Darn', I thought, I will have to use a spare 606 vapouriser but on the positive side the taller 169 vapouriser would probably clean up Ok (as it has). It was a lucky find since I believe it to be a 1950 to 54 X246 that is stamped and has no bead/groove on the fount and no date on the bottom, so perhaps late 1954 and unusual. A similar lantern has been discussed in CPL before. However, a couple days later I received a parcel sent from the other side of Australia, out of the blue (unexpected), by a relative of my son-in-law. The sender had picked up a few items for his Tilley and there were some spares; a Tilley torch and bottle and a brand new in box 606 vapouriser. I mean that was a strange coincidence and a stroke of luck. As the lantern arrived. The base was not dated.
Hi. Nice find there. Not been on for a while and my interest in lanterns comes and goes, though there's always several ready to go 'on the shelf'. Especially in the current climate.. Anyway, I was walking around a local antiques cellar a couple of days back and happened upon a Tilley on one of the stalls. I had a quick look, it was all complete and in reasonable condition, so I paid the asking price of £25. I realised I hadn't been on this forum for a good while and looked back at one of the posts I recalled about a previous Guardsman I'd happened upon, similarly back in 2018. It appears I've picked another one up of around September 1954 vintage, with the Tilley England and Owl stampings on the front, but no date on the base, just 'made in England'. It similarly has no bead around the tank base, and also has a butterfly pump which probably isn't original. I replaced the brown hat on it, as it was in the usual poor condition and replaced it with a good condition black one I had in the spares basket. New seals, cleaned vapouriser, did burner test, new mantle/fuel and off she went. Best regards
Recently, my son-in-law spotted one locally in a local charity shop so I just had to go and rescue it. They'd reduced the cost from £35 to £25 already so I didn't want to gyp them any further, especially with an original deep-dish globe in place and the factory finish on the globe cage. New seals and a clean-up and away she went on the vapouriser already fitted...
Speculum too, with the better loop handle. Guardsman's are my favourite go-to lantern if I'm honest - so simple and far more reliable than the B's...
Yes, better all-round than the later Guardsman with the clips for handle attachment and, as you say, with the speculum tank. It had clearly had problems with the pump washer with the result there was a build-up of black gunk on that area of the tank. Usefully, this had provided protection for the speculum beneath which is probably as smooth as when it left the factory. Potentially as old as I am and we're both doing well enough after 3/4 of a century. I'll have it at Newark if anyone's interested...
@Muzzleflash Thanks for posting your Tilley of around late 1954. It seems there are a few of these kicking around where they have the clip-up bail, and the Tilley 'Owl' England stamp on the side of the fount but NOT the bead (or groove) and no Date stamp so not the later Tilleys that came after the bead/groove was removed. I believe a late 1954 dating is quite reasonable as per previous advice on these 'transitional' models. If several more turn up I reckon they could be considered a group of their own just like the straight cage X246A grouping.
@Sedgman I've got two of those, one I picked up in mid-2018 and this one here a couple of weeks back. I've just this second finished restoring another one (I have 4 Guardsman's now) with the earlier unstamped fount. One is Speculum and dated Oct 1956, which I was told was a very early date stamp on these. The other 3 I have restored using different paint colours, one using Plastikote Bronze Metallic, one using Gold Metallic and the latest one using the preferred Brass Metallic. I'll post a pic soon of the different colours if anyone is interested. Surprisingly the Gold one is the least attractive of the three imo.
Not the best pic, but it's grim and dull outside, so a quick snap of the contrasting colours. On the left, newest addition in Metallic Brass, centre metallic gold, right metallic bronze. I'll do a pic in better light at some point.
