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. 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

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

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 standard 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 kerosene heaters designed 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.

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 priced 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. In 1965 the round wick model 21 adjustment knob  was changed to a hexagonal shape. This was the first appearance of the Aladdin hexagonal shaped wick adjustment knob.  This burner was successful and revived Aladdin Industries Ltd lamp decline.

SIDE NOTE AND QUESTION:  During the winter of 1955-1956 a flood washed away the tooling and presses to manufacture the American 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?

After the war Aladdin civilian product demand grew at a rapid rate. In response to the need for expanded manufacturing space in 1954 Aladdin took over a failed factory in Pontardawe, Whales.  This larger plant was more suited for manufacturing than the Greenford plant. By 1965 lamp & heater manufacturing was transfered from Greenford to Pontardawe.  The Pontardawe plant closed in 1975 when model 23 lamp production ceased in the UK.  Most of the model 21 lamps using the hex shaped burner and all the English made mode 23 lamps were made in the Pontardawe plant.

After the Greenford plant was closed down the Aladdin Industries Ltd sales department was all that remained to handle sales in Europe. They moved to South Whales where last I heard they still operate today.