I am not exactly sure when this was introduced but these Pork Pie tank lanterns were only made from 1946 to about 1950 so with three variations none of them can have been made for more than a year or two. This is the second type of X246 so is probably 1947 or 1948. It has the same brass hood of the 1946 type but now comes with a steel globe cage. Again there is some variation in the colour of the enamelled top.
just found one of these should clean up well but the enamel top is missing and the top although brass is coated with a black "lacker"? cant seem to shift it. my idea was to manufacture a brass top and match it to a polished top. do you think the lacker will shift? wilf
I doubt that is a lacquer. More likely it is just black from use. They got hot up there and hot brass goes black in time. Almost impossible to remove once burnt in because the black is actually oxidised copper so the outer skin of the brass is destroyed. You might get a bit of shine in the brass by hard polishing but better to leave it because I don't think you will get it to look better than it is and with thin brass you are in danger of weakening it if you remove enough surface to get back to shiny brass. Better black than stress cracked. I know that one of mine looks nice but that was a near new condition hood which had hardly been used and was an easy clean. Rare to find them like that and with a well used lamp near impossible to copy. ::Neil::
