Elegant lighting in the nineteenth century. . - Books About Antiques - Brief Article - book review

Magazine Antiques, July, 2002 by Alfred Mayor

Nineteenth Century Lighting: Argand, Sinumbra, and Solar Lamps, by Gerald T. Gowitt (Schiffer Publishing, 800-288-2129), $69.95 (hardcovers).

Between the Neanderthal's bundle of burning faggots and the blinding blue glare of the modern headlight, man has brightened the darkness in a number of ingenious ways. One of the high points was achieved in the nineteenth century, when the candle gave way to a battery of other inflammables: ordinary whale oil rendered from the blubber; sperm whale oil, or spermaceti, from the cavity in the head of the sperm whale; colza, the oil extracted from rapeseed; so called "burning fluid" invented by a Bostonian in 1834 by mixing turpentine, alcohol, and other elements; camphene, a form of purified oil of turpentine developed by a New York City firm in 1839; and lard.

Each of these liquids had its drawbacks: whale oil smoked and smelled; sperm whale oil was very expensive; colza was viscous; burning fluid was given to exploding; camphene yielded only a dim light; and lard was a semisolid that needed a special burner. Nonetheless, lamps were developed to burn all these fuels.

The first and perhaps greatest advance was the burner invented by Ami Argand in 1784. It employed a tubular wick held between two metal tubes open at the bottom. This allowed air to circulate all around the burning wick, greatly increasing the brightness of the flame owing to the more complete combustion of the fuel. However, Argand lamps were difficult to refill, their fuel reservoir cast a shadow, and the lamp began to lose popularity about the middle of the nineteenth century, although the burner endured.

The sinumbra lamps, another French development, had a doughnut-shaped fuel tank around an Argand burner. This facilitated refilling and eliminated the cast shadow (thus the name, adapted from the Latin sine umbra, shadowless). Then, in the 1830s various developments in England and the United States coalesced to create the solar lamp, which depends on an inverted metal saucer with a hole in the middle about the size of the wick. Placed over the familiar Argand burner, this concentrated the oxygen on the flame, which became narrower and more intense. A cottage industry even developed in Boston about 1845 to convert sinumbra to solar lamps with the addition of the inverted saucer.

At its most elementary this is the subject of Nineteenth Century Elegant Lighting: Argand, Sinumbra, and Solar Lamps by Gerald T. Gowitt, a forensic pathologist who has been in the antiques business for the past thirty years. His book is intended for the collector of these three relatively rare types of lamps as defined by their burners. His excellent and well-illustrated definition of each type of burner precedes definitions of the fuels noted above. He allots a cbapter to each of the following lamp makers: Henry N. Hooper and Company; Starr, Fellows and Company; the Dietz; Messenger; Cornelius; and William Carleton companies, and there is a final chapter on "lesser known and unknown manufacturers." In each case a brief history of the company is followed by large color illustrations of lamps by or attributed to it, each with a detailed caption and an estimated price range based on condition and rarity. The "values are the opinions of experts consulted by the author and may be somewhat arbitrary."

The Hooper illustrated trade catalogue of 1850 is reproduced in its entirety, as are surviving pages of other manufacturers' catalogues. Most such catalogues have disappeared, although documentary evidence points to their once having existed.

The many color illustrations of lamps, from the author's collection and other private collections, are the glory of this book. Do not put faith in the colors, which are often muddy and sometimes unlikely but do look at the many fantastically inventive bases, some even inspired by Piranesi. The great variety of lamps shown here could be invaluable to collectors at all levels.

There is a useful glossary and a good bibliography but unfortunately only a smattering of footnotes. This is a pity because it means that future researchers must retrace the author's steps without a map.