©AWMoore 2003
|
The Evening Star is one of those makes which turns up occasionally around the fleamarkets and antique fairs in Britain. As the name perhaps suggests, the country of origin is England, and the lamps were made in London by Curtiss & Harvey in Garret Lane, Wandsworth. Sometime around 1925 C&H became a division of Lighting Trades Ltd. |
|
From the style and condition of the lamps and lanterns I've seen, I would guess they were available during the 1920s and 30s, and old catalogues confirm that they were available as early as 1919 and as late as 1931. There is an advertisement for the Evening Star Table Lamp and Hurricane Lantern in the Lighting Trades Ltd journal of 1927. The Table lamp is described as "giving a wonderful light of 300CP from paraffin or petrol, easy to light and operate" Height 18.5 inches, nickel plated finish. The lantern, shown below, is for "farms, garages, and workshops, and for all outdoor lighting" Height is 14 inches, and the lantern is vaguely similar in appearance to the Coleman L327. The Evening Star logo is embossed in the fount, but there is no date coding.
The generators used in these lamps and lanterns has no pricker, and incorporates an S bend about two thirds of the distance up. This is clearly a parallel to the Coleman Q99 Quicklite coiled generator.
The lamps were supplied with a separate external pump, very similar to the Coleman design, in fact the basic table lamp looks as if it could be a copy of the Coleman CQ.
Lanterns and table lamps by Evening Star are sometimes found in Australia, so there is a high probability that exports went to other countries as well.
There are no known sources of original spare parts for this make, and they are rare enough to make even the scruffiest lamp worth keeping.
It has been difficult to associate individual names with the Lighting Trades company, but one notable director between 1920 and 1922 was Charles Garland. Prior to his appointment as managing director, Garland had been chief chemist and director of Volcker Lighting (Weslbach mantles) works manager of the Lighting Corporation Ltd, and director of Thorium Ltd. Garland was later made fellow of Imperial College, London.
References
2004 Mackie R & Roberts G. The Open University (Department of History of Science, Technology and Medicine, Studies of the British Chemical Community Project). Milton Keynes 2000.
To contact me please go to the mail page.
