Looking for knowledge

Hi I was looking for more info on this oil pot. Any advice? Thanks so much

 

A torch? Looks like whatever angle you hold it, the wick and reservoir will stay vertical.

 

I do have the set. They do swing freely too and the guy I bought them from said they were whale oil parade torches and I was trying to find a comparison. They def swing freely and on one there was a piece of leather which dryrotted off.

 

I will have to look more closely for markings

 

With no way of putting a chimney on I would think they're indoor only.

 

Any insight would be appreciated

 

Hi Terry,
The wick looks like it is too big for a lamp. It would work perfectly as a parade torch.
greg

 

Here are photos of many of them, and I think Greg is correct . . .
https://www.google.com/search?q=par...=0CB0QsAQ#tbm=isch&q=antique+parade+oil+torch

 

Why didn't I think of the word antique in a search
..durr thanks

 

It's rather comforting to think that when you and the rest of the village march off to the vampire's castle with your torches and pitchforks, you and a friend will have state of the art flaming torches.

 

Have often seen these referred to as campaign torches.

 

That fits in quite well with what Af said.

 

I also searched every piece of brass and I could not find any markings. Any guess on value?

 

Maybe used by a town lamplighter, he could carry it while burning, horizontally over his shoulder then raise it up to light the lamp without bothering the flame on his tool. The lathe-turned bare end goes into an extension piece (rare!) to give short lamplighters more reach.

Values:*
without extension piece, $150.
with it, $500
with extension and orig. box $1200.






*for laffs only!

 

This is going to make me sound antediluvian but when I was a kid, the lamplighter walked around with a pole with a hook on it, like a window opener for high windows, and tugged on a short chain to turn the gas on. (I suspect a small pilot light was permanently burning.)

No flames involved, and in any case, any lighting device short of a cresset would seem to require more precision than that device could deliver.

 

Oh, Af! That you have seen an actual lamplighter!

When I was very small, my mother read all the English children's stories and poems. "I Have a Little Shadow" was the first thing I ever memorised. I loved the one about the counterpane, as I had a similar one. But "Leary the Lamplighter," much as I loved it too, always made me feel quite melancholy.

A number of years ago, I spent a couple of days in Edinburgh. I took the bus tour of the city, getting off and on, according to whatever I wanted to see more of. The guides doing the informative patter were all kinds of different! The last one I listened to was (very obviously) an actor. (Resting, as they say) He had a good voice, and intelligent commentary, so I was listening carefully.

He knew me for a sucker instantly. As we approached Stevenson's house, he recited some of the Lamplighter...and I burst into tears. I had been going in to see it...but I couldn't. I cried til I was absolutely drowned -- and felt a right fool!

My mother's antidote had always been to follow Stevenson with Milne's Changing of the Guard, or James, James, Morrison, Morrison, which always bucked me up considerably. But no one in Scotland seemed to know about this.

Never did go in. Tried the next day. Different bus commentator.. Still couldn't.

The only good thing about this experience was that I knew I had Absolutely made that actor's day!!

 

This was pretty much it. They electrified the lights a year or two later. The cross pieces were to lean the ladder on if the mantles needed changing or the glass cleaning.

 

Thank you, Af.

Sniff, sniff...