Condition affects value of lamp, milk ads

If you want to view your art posters with the classic soft light provided by an old oil lamp, today’s What’s It Worth? is just for you.

We answer readers’ questions about their twin burner lamp and a pair of promotional posters for the dairy industry.

Q. This is a lamp that my mother-in-law gave me. It seems to be solid brass, 20 inches long, from handle to bottom nob. The body is 10 inches long. Please note all the scroll work on the body. I believe it is from a ship and was found in Florida in the 1940s — Tammy from Richland

A. This is a well-known brand of lamp; very popular among collectors today. While there is no reason it couldn’t have come from a ship, it more likely was used in the parlor of someone’s home back in the early years of the 20th century.

Mr. Thomas M. Fell of New York was the founding genius of what was to become the Angle Manufacturing Company. His lamp designs received two patents at the end of the 19th century. By 1910 the company was making oil lamps in a variety of shapes and sizes.

The Angle idea was always to provide more light than a single burner lamp could. In his first patent application, Fell explained his idea was to “… provide an improved means for feeding oil to burners by a system of siphon-tubes used in connection with an angular or horizontal burner.”

With multiple burners mounted at angles, Fell’s lamps provided better and more effective light with fewer shadows.

Angle Lamps came in many finishes and with as many as eight burners in the large, ornate “Chandelier” models. All Angle lamps were either hanging or wall mounted.

The company went out of business in 1929, a victim of increasingly available home electricity and the Depression.

Tammy’s lamp is incomplete, missing light diffusing “elbows” below each burner. There are also no chimneys, which were often of colored glass.

A restored lamp sold for $330 this month at auction in Walla Walla. It was quite plain. More ornate, original Angle lamps can bring as much as $1,000 across the country.

In incomplete condition, this lamp is fairly valued at $150 to $200. Parts for restoration are readily available from many sources.

Q. My father-in-law drove milk truck for Standard Dairy from Portland to Astoria, OR in the late ’30s early ’40s. Is there any interest in these posters and are they worth anything? Dimensions are 17-3/4 inches tall and 12 inches wide. They are marked "National Dairy Council” and ‘Oregon Dairy Council.” — Bill in West Richland

A. The National Dairy Council was formed in 1915 to both promote milk (in general) and especially to counter a run of bad publicity when contaminated milk was blamed for a typhoid epidemic two years earlier in New York City.

There was no radio, certainly no TV and limited other ways of communicating milk’s healthful benefits and the new safety provided by pasteurization. So, posters became the method of choice.

From the outset, the national council and various state dairy organizations like Oregon widely distributed colorful posters touting “Milk for Health,” and “Milk for Summer Thirst,” and all things milk, in general.

The aggressive communications campaign continues to modern times. “Got Milk?”

These 1930s “Patsy Girl” posters – there were four in the series – are colorful examples of the many styles distributed in stores, to schools and for decoration in the home.

There are some damages on each, but they can be repaired. If you decide to have them fixed up, we would suggest the work include linen backing.

In restored condition, each of these “Patsy” posters will be worth between $125 and $175.

Seen And Sold

We received a number of reader’s questions about so-called Stradivarius violins after appraising a not-authentic version in What’s It Worth? earlier this month. Interestingly, a violin with the common faux Strad label and also marked “Made in Czechoslovakia” sold at a regional auction in mid-November. With a case and two bows, it was hammered down for $70.

This story was originally published November 28, 2015 at 8:10 PM with the headline "Condition affects value of lamp, milk ads."