Montgomery Ward and Sears were stiff competitors competing for the same customers in every product category. In early 1935 Sears started offering their "Light Master" series of incandescent mantle lamps manufactured by Farmor Manufacturing Company.  These lamps were immediately popular and 32,000 of these lamps were delivered to Sears in 1935.

Montgomery Ward needed an incandescent lamp to compete with the Sears offering.  They choose a proven performer German made burner to go on an American manufactured lamp base and had a table lamp to offer in their Winter 1935/1936 catalogue.  This was followed up the following year with an expanded lamp line to compete with the expanded line of Sears "Light Master" lamps.

The burner Wards chose is a variant of the successful Esso 125 cp burner manufactured by Ehrich & Graetz in Germany. This is the same basic design that was used on the Famos lamps.

These lamps were discontinued 1939 then the outbreak of World War II in Europe made the importation of German burners impossible.  Wards then turned to Bradly and Hubbard for a new incandescent mantle lamp to offer in 1940.

The table lamp with chrome finish was offered each year. In the 1939/1940 Winter catalogue a dull bronze finish version was offered as well.

The Shelf lamp was only offered in the 1937/1938 winter catalogue.

This Vase lamp was only offered in the Winter 1937/1938 catalogue.   A different pattern vase lamp with bronze coloured oil pot was offered in the winter 1939/1940 catalogue.

The lamp base is made of brass. There is a steel bottom plate that completely encloses the lamp base. The steel bottom plate is held in place by the crimp at the base of the foot. The row of holes is the air inlet for the centre draft tube. The finish is Chrome. The 1939/1940 winter catalogue lists a table lamp base with a dull bronze coloured finish on both the burner and lamp fount. Since the battle for the Atlantic started about the same time as the catalogue came out it is unclear how many if any of these bronze finished lamps were made.

There is a short steel baffle inside the centre draft tube below the groove that is the seat for the flame spreader.  The baffle is there to smooth out the air flow coming up the draft tube.  This is only on the table lamp.  There is no corresponding baffle on the shelf lamp or the oil pot.

This incandescent mantle shelf lamp was only offered for about 12 months.

The centre draft tube, font top and filler cap are brass.  The sides, bottom and legs of this lamp are steel.  The original finish was dull bronze with a chrome plated burner.  This shelf lamp has been repainted except for the bottom label , right.

Oil Pot used in Montgomery Wards vase lamp.  The draft tube, filler cap and top of the oil pot are made from brass.  The bottom and sides of the oil pot is silver painted steel.

The burner used on the 1935 through 1939 Montgomery Wards incandescent mantle lamp is the Esso 125 cp burner developed in Germany by Ehrich & Graetz.  This very well regarded burner was used on several different lamps most noticeably the Montgomery wards mantle lamps and the Famos brand incandescent mantle lamps.  Since the burner was already in production in 1935 it allowed Montgomery Wards to quickly add an incandescent mantle lamp to their catalogue offerings.

This burner used multiple gears to adjust the wick. This allowed for noticeably smoother and finer wick adjustment. Other mantle burners used just a single round gear attached to the end of the wick adjustment shaft which directly engaged the straight rack gear on the wick holder.  The result was a harder to turn and more finicky wick height adjustment.

The multiple gear design provided a very noticeable tactile improvement over the lamp's competitors.

The gallery used on these lamps is identical to the gallery on the Esso 125 cp burners used on the Famos 120 CP mantle lamp except for the markings.  The Famos galleries are unmarked. All the Wards mantle lamp galleries are stamped "Made in Germany".  Some are also marked "Pat. App. For" on the opposite side of the gallery.  When The Wards incandescent mantle lamp was introduced in 1935 Aladdin sued Wards for infringement of its Aladdin model 12 patent.  The court determined that Aladdin's patent was not infringed.  Immediately thereafter Ehrich & Graetz applied for a US patent for the burner and the marking "Pat. App. For" was added to the galleries.

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