Hello everybody, this is my Continental Pionier 4615, luckily found near Perugia in Italy. The original globe was missing, so I asked Fred Kuntz to make me one and it looks fantastic. I don't know much about this lamp, so any information about the date would be appreciated. On the bottom plate there is a small mark, what is that? I didn't fettle it, I just removed some dust, I keep as it is at the moment. It is in a perfect shape. Enjoy, Nicola
Ciao Nicola, I have no idea which the small marking can be. I have several Conti's, but this sign I never have seen karli
Hi karli, thanks for your reply. I will investigate more about this mark on the bottom plate, unfortunately with my camera I wasn't able to show it very well. It's interesting that on your continental lamps isn't there... Ciao, Nicola
That is a very nice lamp . It seems to be of high material-quality and looks also to have very nice engineering Thanks for sharing. Claus C
Hi Claus, yes, it's a very solid lantern in any part, also if the cleaning lever seems to be a little delicate if compared to the rest of the lamp. The cleaning needle seems stucked, in fact the cleaning lever doesn't seem to do anything at the moment. I didn't take it apart yet, but it looks very simple to work on. At the moment I'm working on other lamps, so I didn't have the chance to start on this one. Cheers, Nicola
Hi Nicola, You have a very nice lamp. Thank you for sharing. I have a Continental 5215 which also has this very small mark - only 7 x 5 mm. I don't think my camera is good enough to take a detailed picture but looking at the mark with a magnifying glass, there are what looks to be 2 dolphins and some other very small things. Henry.
Hi Henry. thanks to you for the information! Yes, I confirm the size and subject, tha marking on the bottom is the same. Still we don't know what it means... it doesn't look like any continental logo or such, who knows. Cheers, Nicola
I have no idea what the stamping should tell us... I have some lanterns with that mark and some without. I read it as an R in mirror writing (OR maybe the Cyrillic letter Я ) and a K (or К ) combined to a single letter. Is is something like this? The mark shows up in different designs and typefaces, so they really made different stamp dies for some reason. I think they had a reason for it but I do not know. I forgot: I only saw this kind of stamping on Continental Licht lanterns, nowhere else. Erik
Hi Erik, the marking is exactly as you described it, now that I elaborated it with photoshop I can see it better, here a more detailed view: Would be interesting to discover the meaning of these marks, but if you don't know much about it I really don't know who can help us Thanks, Nicola
Anyway, in my opinion is a manufacturer mark. So, if you say that there are different marks showing up, that probably means that continental lamps (or parts of them) were manufactured by different factories and each one was marking their pieces with their own mark... I think this practice was typical in that period, as you can see on many silver objects. Nicola
Hi Nicola and Eric, My 5215 has the same mark but it is "upside down" against the rim of the tank. Henry.
Nicola, it actually is the same mark, but it appears in different typefaces. So when a stamping die was worn out or damaged, they replaced it with the same mark in another design. IF we assume, these were Cyrillic letters, we would have: O the circle around Я (en: ya) К (en: k) ж (very soft sh- like French jour.) - the above letters are just too close to this one... But in fact it is speculation only so far. No reliable information about it. Erik
Hi Erik, all right, that sounds reasonable, thanks May I ask you something else? I'd like soon or later to light this lamp again, but I'm not sure about the parts that will need to be used/replaced (washer leads, pump leather and NRV, cleaning needle, the right fuel to use etc). Before to start I want to be sure to have all the right information and parts and eventually know which modern replacements would fit into it. If you have any hint that would be really appreciated. Many thanks, Nicola
Hi Wim, yes, I know colag.de... but we have Erick in person discussing here I already visited and tried to translate colag.de, but I was looking for some more info about fettling the 4615. Thanks! Nicola
