Toy Garden-Lamp

 

Most of us have street lamps on our train layouts.  Whether they are vintage cast metal ones from the prewar days or more recent plastic ones, they provide that special aura that completes and enhances our layouts.  Most are electric, powered by the layout transformer or more recently by small battery packs.  But, what did layout owners do around the turn of the century when trains were live steam or windup?  They had real oil lamps in the shape of a street lamp. 

My example is made of plated sheet metal and is about 7 ½ inches tall.  The removable top has real glass lenses.  The stem of the lamp was filled with lamp oil and the wick was inserted in the stem.  The wick could then be lit.  There is no adjustment to the wick, so that adjustment would have to be done before it was lit. 

The plating on the top is brass in color and the stem is painted gold.  The 2 ½ inch round base is painted green.  There should be two bars for the lamp lighter to rest his ladder on but one is missing on my example.   There is a strip halfway up the stem that is embossed with the words:  PAT. APR. 6, 97.

The lamp was patented (patent #579,968) and manufactured by Fred Fallows of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was called a Toy Garden-Lamp. The manufacturer was organized under the name C.B. Porter Company in 1870 and then in 1894 name was changed to Frederick & Henry Fallows Toys. The original principals were James Fallows and his sons, Henry, Charles, and David.  They specialized in painted and stenciled tin horse-drawn, wheeled vehicles, trains, and river boats.