L.032

A completely unusual find on eBay France: A small, silver-plated, British lamp with a very rare burner! The lamp has a 10-line Martin burner, which is probably a rarity (see Other Burners - The Martin Burner). All the Martin burners I know of are 14-lines. The burner was in a good state of disrepair: the silver plating was almost completely rubbed off, there was black dirt, and someone had tried to unscrew the burner by force, and in the process, the basket had been badly dented.

The base of the lamp is silver plated by Hukin & Heath (Hukin & Heath, Birmingham, 1855-1904; subsequently Hukin & Heath Ltd. 1904-1953). At the bottom it bears the hallmark H&H + eagle + 5855. According to my research, Hukin & Heath used this mark 1875-1879. Accordingly, the lamp can be dated fairly accurately. The Martin burner is also likely to have been made around 1880. The thread of the burner differs from the conventional 10''' Kosmos burners; it is 2 mm larger in diameter.

I cleaned the burner with acetone and pulled out - as well as I could - the dented areas with a dentist's cutlery. Then I silver-plated the collar, the burner, the rubbed-off areas of the base and the brass globe holder.

The glass font has a cut pattern at its bottom at the cemented area. Presumably it was even usable without a metal base. It needs to be clarified whether this lamp was built by Hukin & Heath, for which they bought the burner and the corresponding collar from Martin, or conversely whether Martin assembled the components himself.

The lamp was completed with a small tulip shade from France and a 10’’’ Kosmos chimney. This resulted in a rather cute Bijou lamp. The appearance of the lamp is rather unspectacular, but the rare burner alone makes the lamp precious.

Lamp Data

Added by me:
Glass chimney, tulip shade and globe holder.

Cleaning and repairs:
The dented areas of the burner basket somewhat repaired. The rubbed areas on the burner, collar and the globe holder silver-plated.

Lamp body:
Base of silver-plated brass, round without decoration, Ø 112 mm. Marked under the foot: H&H + Eagle + 5855 (= Hukin & Heath, Birmingham).
Vase of obliquely ribbed colourless glass, probably crystal, Ø 107 mm.
Vase is at the same time a font. Collar originally silver plated, now rubbed off. Collar re-silvered by me.

Burner:
10’’’ Martin burner by Martin, Birmingham, special round burner with 2 wicks and 2 wick knobs. Burner thread 34.6 mm; basket not separable, with several dents. Original silver layer quite rubbed off.
Two wick knobs marked: Martin’s Patent.
One flat wick as a loop, 20 mm.

Glass chimney:
10’’’ Kosmos chimney. Height 241 mm, Ø fitter 39 mm.
Marked: Kristal (in a star frame) - 10'''.

Shade and shade holder:
Tulip shade, clear salmon coloured glass, optically slightly diagonally ribbed, flat etched flowers, fluted top rim.
Height 116 mm, Ø fitter 55 and top rim 147 mm.
58 mm globe holder for 8’’’/10’’’ burners; silver-plated by me.

Lamp dimensions:
Height up to collar 14.4 cm, total height with chimney 42.4 cm.
Total weight 1520 g.