RARE Antique Jadeite ACME MIniature Oil Lamp by Consolidated, Ca. 1896, S1-384 For Sale

Jaedite Acme 3553 S1-384,

RARE Jadeite ACME NightLamp by Consolidated Glass, Ca. 1896

\"Acme\" Night Lamp by Consolidated, S1-384

About6 1/4\" tall to top of shade.

About2 1/2\" tall to top of collar.

About4\" in diameter at base

Jadeite ACME NightLamp

S1-384

Rated \"Rare\"

Fluoresces under\"black\" light

Manufactured byConsolidated Glass Co, Ca. 1896

Nutmegburner marked \"THE P&A MFG CO ACORN/MADE IN USA\"

Excellentcondition

Fluorescent opaque aqua glass glowsunder black light

Background& History: Shown in Figure 384of Frank & Ruth Smith\'s book \"Miniature Lamps\" and on pages 20 and53 of Ann McDonald\'s book \"Evolution of the Night Lamp\", is one of twovery similar lamps manufactured by Consolidated Glass and referred toby the company as the \"Acme\" night lamp. According to McDonaldthese lamps were mentioned in an 1896 article about Consolidated Glassthus giving us an approximate time of manufacture. Both Acmenight lamps have identical bases. One of them (shown in Figure383 of the Smith book) has a tall shade with a drapery-like patternmatching the pattern on the base. The other, like the one offeredhere has an artichoke-like shade. Consolidated used this sameshade on at least two other lamps (the \"Rose\" shown in Figure 385 ofthe Smith book and on a \"Melon\" lamp shown in Figure 403 of RuthSmith\'s \"Miniature Lamps II\"). All of these lamps were made inseveral colors of opaque glass with either a glossy or a satinfinish. Hulsebus (\"Price Guide for Miniature Lamps\") rates bothvariations of the Acme lamp, in any of its colors or finishes as being\"rare\" (see the note below on our use of these ratings in listings). And, in fact, over a 14+ year span we\'ve only seen 7examples of this Jadeite lamp offered on .

Duringthe time this lamp was made, Consolidated Glass, recently relocatedfrom Fostoria, Ohio to Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, operated under thedirection of Nicholas Kopp, a renowned glass maker from Alsace inEurope. Kopp was best known for his wonderful vivid colorformulations and for his glossy cased glass finishes. The lampoffered here is a beautiful pale, yet rich, aqua green, oftenreferred to as \"jadeite\" because of its resemblance to jade. Onecharacteristic of true jadeite glass is that it fluoresces (glows) whenviewed under \"black\" light. As can be seen in the lastphotograph, this lamp does glow quite nicely under such light. Anote below explains this phenomenon in more detail.

Condition ofthis lamp: Thislamp isin excellent condition with no discernible cracks, chips, flea-bites orother signs of damage or defect.

Thebrass hardware on this lamp, which has been polished, is in also finecondition. The collar which has one very short and tight split isfirmly affixed to the font. A Nutmeg burner screws tightly intothe collar. The burner\'s thumb wheel is marked \"THE P & A MFGCO ACORN\" on its front and \"MADE IN USA\" on the reverse side. An oldshade ring fits snugly over the burner gallery and holds the artichokeshade firmly in place.

Thelamp comes with a clear glass chimney with fire polished edgeswhich is in fine condition.

Measurementsare provided below the first photo to the left.

Showing up on only about onceevery two years, this is a hard-to-find and an extremely attractiveexample of a classic oil fueled Victorian night lamp, in a beautifulpastel color that literally glows. It was manufactured by one ofthe largest and most productive of the Victorian era glass makers over100 years ago and is a legitimate and legitimately hard-to-find antique.

Aboutthe Use of Words Like \"Scarce\" and \"Rare\"

When we see listings which utilize words like \"Scarce\" and \"Rare\"--especially whenthose words are applied to items that we know to be extra-ordinarilycommon we find it disturbing. We realize that some ers, nothaving or knowing of a better way of assessing an item\'s scarcity, usethese terms quite subjectively and frequently based on their ownpersonal experience.They simply don\'t know whether an item iscommon, scarce or rare. We take two steps to describe thescarcity of a lamp.

First, weonly use the words \"Scarce\", \"Rare\", \"Very Rare\", \"Very Very Rare\" and\"Extremely Rare\" if the item in question is judged to be so by anacknowledged outside and independent source. For miniature lamps,we use the ratings in Marjorie Hulsebus 2006 edition of the \"PriceGuide for Miniature Lamps\". Marjorie\'s ratings are also somewhatsubjective (they are based on the collective view of a panel of 12experienced miniature lamps collectors--we were members of that panel),but were at least arrived at independently of the sale or offering ofany particular lamp.We don\'t always agree with the Price Guides ratings but if we disagree,we will still quote the guide\'s rating and then provide the reason whywe don\'t agree.

Second, sinceJune of 2002, we have collected and recorded data on the offering ofover 61,000 listed miniature lamps on and over 5,900 lamps offeredat selected live sales (ones which we attended or from which we wereable to get reliable data). We\'ve reviewed tens of thousands ofnew items; from among those, we identify the ones that arelisted in the standard reference books and record basic information(identifying features, condition, sale end-date, etc.) oneach. When the sale ends we go back and record whether thelamp sold or not and for how much. We keep all of this data in anonline database and make the database available free of charge tomembers of the Night Light Club and to others who have requestedaccess. We don\'t see every listed miniature lamp that\'s offeredon , but we estimate that we see more than 85-90% of them.When we quote the Price Guide\'s scarcity rating for a given lamp, wegenerally also provide information, from our database, on the number oftimes during the period we\'ve collected data that we\'ve seen that lampoffered on . And it\'s this data that allows us tosubstantiate, refine or, at times, to respectfully disagree with therating in the Price Guide.

Fluorescence in Colored Glass

Uranium (in the form of uranium dioxide,or \"uranium salts\") has been used as a coloring agent in glass at leastsince the early 1800s, and perhaps as early as Roman times. Somecredit its first use to Josef Reidel in Bohemia in the 1830s. Itsuse as a coloring agent clearly came from the bright yellow color ofuranium salts in their raw state. When used as the only, or theprimary, coloring agent, uranium imparts a yellow or yellow-green colorto the resulting glass. However, it is often used in combinationwith other coloring agents to create other colors--most commonly greenand sometimes bright blue. When used in combination with tinoxide (which by itself is used to create an opaque white glass--whichwe call milk glass), uranium creates \"custard\" glass. It is alsoused as component of a light green opaque glass commonly called\"jadeite\". And, Uranium was used as a constituent in MountWashington Glass Company\'s formula for \"Burmese\" glass.

Although certainly unknown to earlyglass makers, uranium\'s radioactivity causes the glass with which it ismade to fluoresce (or glow) a bright green, or yellow-green, color whenviewed under long wave ultra-violet (UVA or \"black\") light. Theamount of uranium used in the making of the glass was generallyrelatively small (about 1 pound for every 62 pounds of otherconstituents) and poses no health hazard at all. Even being inthe presence of very large amounts of glass colored with uraniumexposes one to no more radiation than that emitted by a television or amicrowave oven.

In the United States we generally calltransparent yellow or green glass which glows under black light\"Vaseline\" glass (in the U.K. \"Vaseline glass\" generally refers toopalescent glass which may also have been made with uranium).According to purists, other colors of uranium fluorescent glass shouldbe called \"uranium glass\" and not \"Vaseline glass\". Otherchemical compounds used in glass-making can also cause the glass tofluoresce. While the only true test of whether a piece of glasscontains uranium is by measuring the radiation with a Geiger counter,we believe that it is safe to assume that a piece of yellow, green orblue glass which glows very brightly when viewed under ultra-violetlight was made by the addition of uranium as at least one coloringagent.

The use of uranium as a glass coloringagent was prohibited, for obvious reasons, in the U. S. and Britainfrom about 1940 and until the 1960s. Since the 1960s, the uraniumused in glass making is depleted uranium which does not fluoresce asbrightly as the pre-1940 uranium, or Vaseline, glass.

[Note that is can be quite challengingto get an accurate (i.e., that looks the same as what one sees withtheir eyes) photograph of the fluorescence in the glass. We workhard to get a photograph that looks like what we see, but there isusually some minor discrepancy either in the exact color or amount ofthe fluorescence. Should you examine a fluorescent lamp underblack light, in a darkened environment, it will glow, but may not lookexactly like the photograph we provided.]

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Pleaseoffer only if you intend to honor your offer with payment.All items are sold \"As Is\". We do our best to describe all itemsaccurately. However, mistakes and oversights can occur. Returns will beaccepted within 30 days if item is found to be not as described. Ingeneral refunds will be given as money back and will include theoriginal offer amount and initial shipping costs (but not the returnshipping cost). Refunds will be given once the item is received andverified to be in the same condition as when it was sold.

Shipping Information

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Informationfor International Buyers

International buyers not using Paypal, please use a form ofpayment denominated in U.S. dollars. We generally ship itemsinternationally using either the United States Postal Services \"GlobalPriority Mail\" or \"First Class International\" mail, depending on thesize and value of the shipment. If we can ship the item for lessthan the quoted shipping price, we will notify you and refund anyoverpayment. We mark international shipments as \"antique\" (whenthe item is in fact an antique) since most countries do not levy importtariffs on antique items.

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