L.313

At first glance, a rather ordinary glass lamp with sparse paintings and an extraordinary tulip shade. Only a look at the burner reveals its great exceptionality: the burner is a very rare Kosmos burner by Schwintzer & Gräff with an extinguisher! In these 10 years I have only twice seen a Kosmos burner with extinguisher on eBay, one of them is attached to this lamp. The lamp can be dated to about 1880 by the date of the burner patent.

The burner is probably a kind of prototype for later burners with extinguishers. The two semicircular extinguishing flaps close the wick tube by spring force as soon as they are lifted upwards. Normally, this function is performed by a lever that can be operated from the outside. In this burner, a small knob takes over the function of the lever. It is locked at the bottom and is under spring tension. As soon as it is unlocked at the bottom, it moves upwards by spring force and the extinguishing flaps close. Later, this complex mechanism was replaced by a simple lever. The second Kosmos burner with extinguisher that I saw already had this lever mechanism instead of the spring knob.

The glass font has considerable play in the vase; the diameter is about 7 mm smaller. The frieze painting is also different compared to the vase: the colours are simply applied flat instead of pasty as on the vase. But the opal glass is absolutely identical to the rest of the lamp body (colour, surface, bubbles, etc.). I therefore believe that the font is original to the lamp after all.

I only changed the chimney to have "SG" as the chimney mark, because I assume that S and G stand for Schwintzer and Gräff.

Lamp Data

Added by me:
Glass chimney.

Cleaning and repairs:
Not necessary.

Lamp body:
Lamp body of hand-blown opal glass, foot Ø 142 mm, without tear-off hole.
Vase painted with blue and white enamel paint (front: bird on flowering branch; back: flowering branches). Vase with two handle-like, gold-painted decorative applications on the sides. Golden decorative lines partially rubbed. Vase Ø 120, with handles 129 mm.
Drop-in font made of the same glass as the vase, profiled, painted with a surrounding frieze of leaf garlands, Ø 142 mm.

Burner:
14’’’ Victoria Normal burner of Schwintzer & Gräff, Berlin, with extinguisher.
Wick knob marked: Victoria Normal - Patent.
Wick tube marked: Patent 1878.
Extinguisher marked: Deutsches Reich's Patent v. 27.8.78.
Flat wick 67 mm.

Glass chimney:
14’’’ Kosmos chimney. Height 265 mm, Ø fitter 53 mm.
Marked: S and G in a crown - Ges. geschützt 14'''.

Shade and shade holder:
Tulip shade, colourless frosted glass, flat-etched flowers, flat upper rim.
Height 200 mm, Ø fitter 83 and bulge 171 mm.
85 mm globe holder for 14’’’/15’’’ burners.

Lamp dimensions:
Height up to collar 34.0 cm, total height with chimney 64.3 cm.
Total weight 2270 g.