How To Clean A Wolfard Lamp

Lamplight: The Soft Glow Of Yesterday

Feb. 9, 1978

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February 9, 1978

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THE OR lamps our ancestors depended on for light are making a comback and taking their place alongside modern appliances the home. Cheaper than candles, more dependable than batteries, they're a godsend when the power fails. They're romantic, too, evoking as they do the aura 'of more tranquil days.

"It's hard to worry by lamplight," said David Kyner, partner with Howard Kaplan in the French Country Store. "We sell them like crazy," he added of the French antiques and reproductions displayed in the main shop at 35 East 10th• Street and the 400 Bleecker Street branch. Styles date mostly to the 1850's, when kerosene became popular as a clean, safe, inexpensive light fuel.

Today, though, lamp oils containing petroleum distillates are generally preferred. Distillates may be clear or colored, scented or odorless according personal taste, and cost anywhere from $1.69 to

$3 a quart. The odor of kerosene, which sells for around 75 cents a gallon, is distasteful to some people, but bugs don't like it either, an advantage for outdoor use.

• • •

Oil lamps are readily available around town—except perhaps immediately after a blackout. They run the gamut from a bright red workman's lantern for

$4 at Kaufman Surplus, 319 West 42d Street, a pair of early Victorian parlor lamps for $1,800 at James Robinson, 12 East 57th Street.

L. L. Bean of ,Freeport, Me., reported a 36 percent increase in sales last year of kerosene mantel lamps by the 70-year-old Aladdin Industries. The mail‐order house offers two table models as well as a hanging and a wall lamp. They range from $25.50 to $34.50 postpaid.

So successful was the Nantucket lamp introduced three and a half years ago by International Silver of Meriden, Conn., that the company has added 11 others to its line. These rather elegant lamps, colonial in style, burn either lamp oil or kerosene. Prices start at $21.50 for the tiny brass mini‐accent lamp and go to $60 for the pewter nutmeg, believed to be a reproduction of an early Plume & Atwood design. B. Altman and Fortunoff carry the International Silver lamps.

Parlor lamps with flame spreaders inside the wick and shadow globes of etched glass are capable of illuminating a large area in a room, while the suspension lamps popular from 1850 to 1910 were used to light whole kitchens. The cheapest lamp at the

To get an even flame, trim the wick to keep level; high threads cause smoke. You should be burning the fuel and not the wick.

Never put the glass chimney on "cold;" hold it your hands to impart some body heat first. The chimney doesn't have to be removed to extinguish the lamp; simply cup your hand and blow softly across.

Be careful when filling an oil lamp. It is best use a funnel. Wipe up spills—they are highly volatile.

• Keep the lamp out of reach of children and away from combustible materials. Don't place the lighted lamp in a draft, under shelves or close to the ceiling. Try not to leave a lighted lamp unattended. If you must leave the room, lower the flame. French Country Store is a miniature glass model for $12, the most expensive an antique railway car model for $350 with copper reflector and brass markings by Hinks & Son of Birmingham, England. This has a tank sufficient to hold fuel for 24 hours.

Another industrial design used now in the home is the solid brass lamp by E. Thomas & Williams of Aberdare, Wales, that Jenny B. Goode, 1194 Lexington Avenue between 81st and 826 Streets, sells for $100.

Brighton Court, 1242 Madison Avenue between 89th and 90th Streets, deals in brass oil lamps from England. The lamps range from $55 to $250 for an ornate sconce with rose glasS font and shade.

All the Brighton Court lamps can be used with interchangeable electrical adapters, and have the duplex burners for which we have Benjainin Franklin to thank.

Oil lamps show up In contemporary designs with acrylic bases too. The hand‐thrown stoneware lamps at Macy's Cellar, for example, are definitely contemporary in style. Joan Kriegman of Hempstead, LI., does them in dark blue and earth tone glazes ($12 and $15).

Although a good oil or kerosene lamp gives light equivalent to a 60‐watt .bulb, there are also oil lamps, such as International Silver's mini‐accent, that merely cast a romantic glow in a corner, or substitute for candles at the dinner table.

The cylindrical glass lamps from Wolfard Glassblowers of Santa Rosa, Calif., fit into this category. Performer's Outlet, 222 East 85th Street, has them in four sizes: 6‐inch, 9‐inch, 12‐inch and 15‐inch. The smallest holds two ounces of oil and burns hours ($19.50), the largest holds 9 ounces of oil and burns 73 hours ($39.50).