Gas lamp with shade

50. gas lamp?and hand painted shade. by amy (amy442@hotmail.com)
    Posted: October 07, 1998 @ 19:31.
    I do hope I am asking this question in the right forum.I have A table lamp that belonged to my grandmother.The base has a fitting for aparently some type of gas connection and is made of metal.The shade is of glass with a scene painted all the way around the inside.I am wondering what kind of lamp this is and also the shade. There were two of them but the larger was destroyed in A fire.They were converted to electricity some years ago.My grandmother inherited them from her deceased husband who said they were his mothers.He knew nothing about them other than that they were pretty.His family came from the Pennsilvania,West virginia area if that helps any.If I can just find out what kind of lamp and shade this is, i'm sure I can do the rest of the research myself.Thank you ! Amy p.s please e mail me as I am not shure I can find this site again.That is if this is where ?s are usualy answered.? Thanks again.
    

• On October 07, 1998 @ 23:21, Fil Graff, Guild Secretary (fgraff@comcast.net) wrote:
  Amy: With a fitter on the base (like the ones the bunsen burner was connected to in high school chemistry lab?), it sounds like it was/is a gas table lamp. The gas pipe (rubber tubing covered with fabric, usually) came down from a ceiling fixture, and because it was flexible, allowed the lamp to be moved about on the table. These lamps usually had a mantle (rigid like an Aladdin mantle) and gave 60 to 100 candle power. If the lamp was electrified, the gas burner was likely destroyed in the process. Reverse-painted shades weren't common on these lamps, so the shade may have come from another lamp when Grandpa electrified it. Gas table lamps usually had a "petticoat" shade, or "half shade", supported by a frame around the burner that also held the chimney, and could support a small under shade. The bases wern't usually big enough to support a big reverse painted lamp shade.
  There were lots of companies that made these lamps. The best know was Welsbach. If there is any of the original burner left, you might find a marking on it indicating who made the lamp. They are rather difficult to identify if the burner is gone, as the stems looked pretty much the same; there aren't many surviving catalogues to look them up, either. Hope this helps some, anyway. Our site address (and Bookmark it, if you plan to return here) is < > . ;; Fil Graff ::