Lamp, Whale-Oil
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for Lamp, Whale-Oil
Lamp, Whale-Oil
Place of OriginProbably New England
Date1827-1830
DimensionsH: 6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm); Base W: 2 13/16 in. (7.15 cm)
MediumColorless glass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Harold G. Duckworth
Object number
1969.190
Not on View
DescriptionFont blown and finished by tooling. Joined by four varied knops to a small, square tapered pedestal base with cusped corners and plain exterior. Base pressed, probably by a bench press, upside down in a one-piece female mold by a male plunger conforming in shape to the exterior and bearing all of the pattern and stippled background with a very short plain shoulder and another plain flat surface that formed the undersurface of the perimeter of the base. Slight pontil mark at midsection of interior of base. The vertical lip indicates that the lamp was intended to have a cork-supported tin burner for whale oil.
Published ReferencesMerwin Galleries, Catalogue of the Norton Collection of Antique Historical Lamps, auc. cat., New York, March 10, 1914, no. 145, p. 18, pl. 5 (lamp of the same form and possibly with the same base, but font pattern-molded).
Lee, Ruth Webb, Sandwich Glass: The History of the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company, 7th ed., Northboro, Mass., author, 1947, p. 466, pl. 188, second from left.
Wilson, Kenneth M., American Glass, 1760-1930: The Toledo Museum of Art, New York: Hudson Hills Press in association with the Toledo Museum of Art, [Lanham, Md.]: National Book Network [distributor], c1994; 2 v. (879 p.): ill. (some col.); 32 cm., 1994, p. 314, no. 367.
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