Sunday, October 14, 2007

Victorian Era Oil Lamps

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There are a lot of interesting frontier era things in the museum at Woodward Ranch about 15 miles south of Alpine, Texas.
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One of the things that stuck my eye was a very interesting oil lamp. Jan Woodward thinks that maybe it was made in Mexico since it has a brass crucifix on the base. What I found fascinating was the sizing. The diameter of the flame spreader on the Matador type burner is gigantic. It must be around 3 inches, yet the chimney is kind of shortened. A stubby version of what one would expect.
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The Matador style of burner was developed in Berlin, Germany about 1895. So this lamp at Woodward Ranch is very late 1800's or early 1900's. For cheap lamps or tourist lamps the single flat burner is much more common, so for sure this is a "real" lamp, and a very elegant one at that.


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