Here is anoter table lamp, very similar to Neil's. It has the same awful green handle, same fount and burner but, as you can see, another top. This seems to come from a lantern, it has slots for a handle. Another difference is the plate that fix the glass. This lamp has two plates, one in zink plated steel and the other in aluminium. A strange design. The control wheel is the same but to mee it looks like coming from an old radio. This company really mixed parts together. Bo
We still don't know who made these. The fount is Kayen and the handle and burner are AGM from the 1920s. That hood looks like an AshFlash. Because these lamps are factory made hybrids anyway it is hard to decide what was origial and what is aftermarket modification. I can't imagine two base plates as original so I guess the whole globe cage and hood are not but it looks OK. ::Neil::
Strange lamp Bo by the look, but a awesome collectable to have. Well saved Looks like Coleman and Vapalux met in a dark room. Claus C
I have had this one standing in my barn for a long time. But I think I traded it from Albert White in Australia for 10 years ago or so. Bo
A very good trade! I went on the hunt a few weeks ago around the town of Goulburn to see if I could locate one of these odd lamps, but no luck! Cheers Tony
Go back and put up some 'Wanted - dead or alive' posters! The name Goulburn always strikes me as if it's some sort of cowboy-type town but I'll bet that's nothing like the truth!
Cowboy town isn't too bad a description... It used to be referred to as the City of institutions: a big gaol (jail), boarding schools, police academy, the Archdiosece etc, and was a big railway town: Goulburn, New South Wales - Wikipedia Oh, yes: it has the Big Merino! Big Merino - Wikipedia
Goulburn is a rural city of institutions: big maximum security gaol (jail, for some), boarding schools, archdiocese etc...
@Bo Ryman As I’ve been doing a bit of work sorting through some of these Quirk’s Victory lamps and lanterns, I can confirm the view of @Mackburner that the hood on the lamp is from an Ash Flash, or more likely in this case, the version of the same lantern sold in Australia as “Campway”. See here: Campway Sundowner MkII Model 4100 (Hong Kong) Cheers Tony
Okay, I’m certainly no great scholar of pressure lamps and I’ll plea ignorance before I have to ask, why is this not a Frankie? My naive eye sees a lamp cobbled together out of parts. If this is a manufactured lamp, how many were made by this mystery maker? I only ask as I’d be interested to know how many similar frankies I’d have to assemble to be recognised as a maker? Or, if I cobbled together a number of similar-ish lamps, would that qualify me as a maker? Perhaps I’m taking the Mickey a bit here. Seriously though, any ideas on how many of these ‘lamps’ were made?
@BigStevie The @Bo Ryman Quirk’s lamp is not a “frankie”, even though it may have a ring-in vent and glass. 1. The tank, fuel control, and burner, and probably one of the globe rests, are all standard Quirk’s fittings that come on these “Goulburn Specials”. I expect the glass and vent were fitted either by Albert White, who seems to have once owned the lamp (and another one I have, not yet posted), or by TW Sands, Brandt Bros or a previous owner. 2. Quirk’s themselves aren’t that much of a mystery, even though these lamps are (see below). William Montague Quirk was in the lighting and engineering business, and an inventor and patent holder in Australia, from the first decade of the 20th century. Quirk’s sold “air gas” lighting, ran an engineering business and, in and from the 1920s, sold what looked like AGM or modified AGM lamps. What became Quirk’s Victory Lighting Co. became a manufacturer of wind generators, electrical lighting plants etc. They have only recently closed down. The history of Quirk’s is quite interesting, and I’m going through some information I found recently to add to it. Neil MacRae’s PLC has a good section under the brand “Victory”. 3. Advertisements from the 1920s to 1950 show a Quirk’s table lamp and a lantern that look very AGM-like and are not these “Goulburn Specials”. The consensus is that these “Goulburn Specials” were produced after WWII. There obscurity in advertising makes me think they were either a special order, or were produced by Quirk’s to fill a post-war shortage of lighting caused by import restrictions and electrical distribution “brown outs”. We may never know. I was talking to another Australian collector the other day. We think they were not made in big numbers. If you consider maybe 5 — 10% of these lamps survive today, then we aren’t talking huge numbers - but that’s speculation. Note: The burner is a Quirk’s patent, even though it’s a copy of the AGM patent: https://classicpressurelamps.com/threads/quirk’s-burner-patent-no-3904-1921.17861/ More discussion here: Quirk’s Victory Lantern (“Goulburn Special”) Cheers Tony
@Tony Press Thanks for the info Tony, oddly this has now got me in the mood to try and track one down. Not much hope I guess from this side of the rock!
