Basket Lamps

Early on Jack Imber decided that Aladdin England needed both a floor lamp and a taller table lamp that would not shine light directly into the eyes of people sitting across from one another at a table. It was too expensive to import large heavy American floor lamps and Aladdin Chicago did not offer a taller banquet style lamp.  Aladdin England came up with the idea a metal basket to hold a font lamp on top of a pole which could be a floor lamp or tall "banquet lamp.  At this time the earliest mention of an Aladdin basket lamp I have found was in the "Ironmonger" issue November 25, 1922.  This is the year the Aladdin model 11 was introduced.  All model 11 and most if not alll font lamps used in basket lamps were American made with "LONDON" markings on the wick adjustment knobs.

Two unique shade holders were offered with these basket lamps allowing large silk and art glass shades to be used on these lamps. Sadly few of these lamps seemed to have survived WWII  and the succeeding years.

NOTE: Tilly basket lamps were made by the same company that made the Aladdin basket lamps

There are two different basket designs. One is deeper and rounded towards the base which fits the model 11 font lamps. The other is more square shaped to fit the model 12 font lamp.  The basket banquet lamp I own has the early shaped basket with a US manufactured model 11 font lamp.

Aladdin model 11 basket and font lamp	Smaller of the two types of shade holders. The smaller diameter ring fits to the gallery while the top larger diameter ring holds the shade.

Aladdin England model 11basket banquet lamp with silk shade
The stem and base are their standard mahogany stand.

By the time the 1933 Tarrifs were imposed Aladdin England had presses & dies ready to stamp out their own font lamps. Model 12 burners continued to be imported from the United States.

American model 12 font for comparison. Note that both the American and English lamps have raised threaded inserts. This lamp was sold in England before 1933	English model 12 font. The round air holes in the base match the air holes in the English model 12 table lamp This font was made in England and was sold 1933 through 1935 when the model 12 was discontinued.

 

English model 12 font lamp

courtesy of Adrian Booker

courtesy of Adrian Booker

In the late 1930s as the UK was preparing for war, Aladdin England started experimenting with the new Bakelite plastic and designing future war products. As they perfected their molding techniques Aladdin introduced two Bakelite lamps, a table lamp and a shelf lamp. The shelf lamp looks like it could be used as a wall or hanging lamp but the diameter below the chime is too wide for the 6 inch Aladdin wall and ceiling hangers. The shelf lamps were cast from either black or brown bakelite. The table lamps were either left brown or painted. Production ended when the UK declared war on Germany in 1939.

 

During WWII brass became a restricted material so production of brass Aladdin lamps were stopped. Since kerosene lamps were still needed Aladdin produced a steel font lamp. Production focused on war related products ranging from special fuses for anti-aircraft shells to small specified kerosene heaters to be placed inside aircraft at night to keep condensation from depositing on aircraft interiors and creating rust.  Aladdin escaped with little damage from bombing.  different stamping tools and dies needed to made to handle the tougher steel. The sides of the steel font is unique and easily recognizable, as is the black steel oxide finish to prevent rust. The burners were unplated brass finish. This lamp has a brass threaded insert for the burner.

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Note that the above font has brass threaded inserts as does the earlier steel font below. The above one has a steel foot assembly.

This half stripped steel lamp retains a brass foot assembly. An example of
Aladdin using up earlier parts

WWII steel model 14 font lamp

At the end of WWII the country was nearly destitute with rationing continued into the 1950s. There was a very high demand for Aladdin products but the model 14 burner was becoming out of the reach for the people throughout the British empire who needed kerosene lighting the most. The countryside away from the cities were finally becoming wired for electricity and kerosene lighting was taking a secondary role inside the British isles. Work began on designing a cost reduced burner that improved upon weaknesses found in the model 14 burner.  The new less expensive to make Aladdin 21 burner was introduced in 1953 and stayed in production into 1969. This burner was successful and revived Aladdin Industries Ltd lamp decline. Earlier model 21 burners had a round wick adjustment knob, lateer versions introduced a hexigon shaped burner adjustment knob.  When the model 21 was introduced in America in 1963 a "C" was added to the adjustment knob as Aladdin lamps sold in Ameria had carried a "C" label.

The model 21 font lamp was cost reduced by eliminating the brass threaded burner insert. Instead a single burner thread became part of the font top stamping. This saved the cost of stamping a threaded burner insert and the insertion operation. The threaded insert of the filler was retained. Perhaps because it was harder to cross thread.	For comparison, the model 14 font burner insert. If an English font has threads it is pre-1953 model 14 or 12. If the single thread it is either a model 21 or 23 font.

Prior to the model 21 Aladdin England only offered American made wall mounting brackets.
This English made bracket was offered for the Aladdin model 21 lamp.

SIDE NOTE AND QUESTION:  During the winter of 1955-1956 a flood washed away the tooling and presses to manufacture the model B burner. Aladdin Nashville spent the money to develop and tool up the inferior Model C burner.  This money was spent while Aladdin England had a 3 or 4 year old successful cost reduced burner in production. Why didn't Aladdin Nashville just import burners from the UK or import a set of burner tooling?  The Model C had hit and miss functionality. A further cost reduced model C burner was later designed in Brazil. This burner went into production as a steel burner and didn't burn as well as the Nashville model C burner.  Finally in 1963 the model C Brazil was discontinued and Aladdin Nashville started importing the English made model 21 burner, adding a "C" to the 21. Aladdin Nashville could have saved the cost of designing and tooling up of 2 different inferior burners that costs customer acceptance if they had just adapted the superior model 21 burner right after the model B burner tooling was destroyed. Why did they ignore an already designed and customer tested design? Not invented here? Thinking they could design an even less expensive to manufacture burner?

The model 23 was introduced in 1969 as a further production cost reduction and reliability improvement. The most observable difference in the burner was a change as to how the wick was attached to the wick holder.   This was the last burner to have a cover over the wick adjustment knob. The font for the English font lamp remained unchanged from the model 21 font. The English made model 23 lamps were discontinued in 1974 when production went to Hong Kong. For reasons unknown to me, the model 23 tooling remained in England. The Hong Kong company took measurements off an existing burner which were not as exact as they should have been.  As a result, Hong Kong made burners never burned as well as the English made model 23 burners.

1969 through 1977  The aluminum lamp was a major cost reduction attempt by Aladdin England. The table lamp version had the aluminum font on top of a black or white stem to a thin unweighted aluminum base.  When filed with kerosene this made for a top heavy lamp which stayed on the market for just a very short time. The font lamp version appears to use the same above the chime tooling as the table lamp. The below the chime tooling had a much larger diameter short mini-stem with 3 short studs inside bottom presumably to attach an aluminum foot. My lamp is missing the foot so I cannot show it to you. This font lamp fits the common wall mount and hangers thocugh I have seen no evidence it was sold with either. 

The Aladdin hanging lamp, model BH210 was sold in the UK and in America between 1997 and 2022  This lamp had a hanger made in England and at least for the UK market a special Hong Kong made model 23 font lamp. My lamp was purchased in England and I do not know what font was shipped to the US market.  The UK version has a foot at the bottom of the lamp to imitate the earlier UK model 23 font.  This foot is part of the base stamping below the chime and not an add-on foot like the English made font lamps. Please note that none of the other made in Hong Kong font lamps had this wider foot.

Hong Kong made special 23 font right  English made model 23 font left. Note the English 23 foot is larger diameter,	Bottom view: Left is the Hong Kong special model 23 font with the foot molded on as part of the font stamping. Note that its diameter is smaller than the English made model 23 foot.