ARCHIVED Questions and Answers
Miller Library Lamp
-
Miller Library Lamp by jacqui hughes
Posted: Dec. 05, 1998 @ 01:38.
I have a hanging library lamp with the name of 'Miller" on the bronze cap where oil was poured in.The glasses are handpainted, numbered by hand on interior #147, frame is bronze,rise & fall, smoke bell & crystals top & bottom all in tact & operating. Any informaton on the makers of this lamp would be greatly appreiciated.
-
On Dec. 05, 1998 @ 19:42, Fil Graff, Guild Secretary
wrote:
Jacqui: "Miller" is Edward Miller and Co., Meriden, CT. They specialized in lamps, castings and brass fabrication, as did other Connecticut neighbors like Plume and Atwood and Bradley and Hubbard. Miller was part of the kerosene lamp business almost from the beginning, and was quite innovative during several periods. They survived well into the electric lamp era, making table lamps, etc., many with the slag glass shades so popular at the time. For a while, the company was part of General Electric, and it survives today as a brass fabricator under completely different ownership.
The flame spreader is (or was, if it is missing or replaced by an electric socket) marked with the Miller trademark (initials in a diamond shaped figure). Miller evidently did a lot of exporting, as I am told that the Miller is one of the most common lamps found in Australia. I have seen photos of a New Zealand collection that contains only Miller library lamps, and it would be surprising to find that many in a collection in the States!
You might want to get a hold of Peter Cuffley's book "Oil and Kerosene Lamps in Australia". Recently reprinted, it has a lot of Miller stuff in it. :: Fil ::