hey guys i have just got my first hurricane lantern and i love it iv also orderd a tilley storm lamp which my grandad used to use.
anyone have any of these if so post pics.
thanks guys.
anyone have any of these if so post pics.
thanks guys.
Lanterns are a cool collecting hobby. A friend of mine's father collected railroad lanterns. He must have had several hundred from every railroad in existence. When he passed away a few years ago the auction of his railroad lantern collection got nation wide attention.
I remember being in total awe every time I would see them. His dad knew them all like old friends and loved to talk about any that you showed the slightest interest in. I learned to not look at one too long otherwise it came down and I learned everything there was to know about that lantern and the railroad that owned it.
The earlier Tilleys from the 1940s and 1950s were better made.
If you need mantles I can get them from the hardware store in town for you.
My lanterns are the Vapalux type which IMO are a better lantern.
I haven't had a rusty tank (neither inside nor out), but I have had full of thick pasty varnish. This is usually because unleaded automotive gasoline was used instead of white gas, then the lantern was let sit for years.
My Dad's lantern I borrow from time to time for parties sat for 15 years filled with Coleman white gas. It fired up and did not require anything other than mantles. One lantern I got was supposedly used about a year previous with unleaded and it was gummed up with varnish and would not stabilize after lighting. The pasty varnish was in a flea market find, and the only one I did not test light.
I did devalue one significantly by painting the font since all the paint had fallen off. "Collectors" prefer as original as possible. Users want it to work right! It is my favorite lantern and gets used regularly for just doing things at night. I do try to preserve things as original as I can, bit I try to be realistic about it
Those Tillys are handsome. I always liked the open look instead of having everything covered like on the Coleman lanterns.
I have been wanting a table lamp style (as opposed to lantern), of any brand, but they are desirable in less than useful condition because of how rebuildable the lamps are. Things were built to a different standard most of a century ago!
Phil
We've got quite a few of the antique table lamps, I'm not sure what brand they are, but I know they're from the 20's-30's. They've been in my family since they were new, and they still function; we've used them during the ice storms of '03 and '09. Of the four we have, they can light up a room just as well as an electric lamp.