Australian # 20 System light refitted for # 21 Wall Bracket. Sold by Wizard Lighting Systems, Sydney. Pretty sure there is a US Nagel Chase equivalent but at thi8s stage haven't found one. Colin
A great lamp you have there Colin ! You are right about the US Nagel Chase equivalent. This is from the 1915-1916 catalogue! /Conny
Wizard is actually a Nagel Chase brand name which you will see on American NC lamps. I don't know what the tie in with Wizard Australia was but the lamps are basically NC with some modifications later on. Could be they were imported or perhaps manufactured in Aus under some sort of trading agreement or licence. It is this tie which is the reason we have lumped these lamps in the American Nagel Chase gallery. ::Neil::
Hello Neil, Perhaps the following may help you decide if Wizard Australia and the American Wizards should be put in the same group. This topic interested me, the tie in between Wizard Australia and the Nagel Chase American Wizards. It appears there is no tie in according to a number of court cases heard in Australia, starting in Sept 1925 and concluded in October 1925. In a part heard case, which the plaintiff, Guiseppe William Tadich eventually won, was some interesting factual information. As mentioned, the Australian company and manufacturer of Wizard lighting Systems and lamps, eventually won the case. The defendant, Thomas Crawford McDowell whom imported but also manufactured Nagel Chase/Wizard plants and lamps in Australia, eventually took the case to the High Court of Australia to appeal the verdict but lost again. What I get out of my research is: In 1914 formed an Australian company, Wizard Lighting Systems and began manufacturing Wizard lighting plants and lamps from 65 York St Sydney NSW. It appears around 1924/25 Nagel Chase/Wizard began in Australia as Tadich said in the 1925 court case he had "recently discovered" McDowell was installing products named "Wizard Lighting Systems" or "Wizard Quicklit Lighting Systems," and selling large numbers of lamps that that were named "Wizard Quicklit Lamps," that Tadich had not manufactured or supplied. The defendant McDowell denied that he had used the word "Wizard" except in phrases, In which the word "American" or "Quicklit" was also used, or that he represented himself to be the representative of any system of lighting other than "Wizard Quicklit Lighting System," "The Wizard Quicklit Light," "American Wizard Light," "Wizard Quicklit Co.," or "American Wizard Co.," This is the outcome of the appeal, dated April 1st 1926. McDowell v. Tadich The High Court on April 1 upheld the decision of Mr. Justice Harvey in Equity Court in October, 1925, that, though McDowell, the plaintiff, had used the name 'Wizard' for many years, while selling the Manufactured lamps of The Nagel Chase Mfg. Co., of Chicago, yet when plaintiff manufactured his own lamps he had no right to apply Manufacturers' name to lamps made by him. Nor had he any creative right to stop G. W. Tadich (trading as The Wizard Quicklit of N.S.W.), or anyone else, from selling 'Wizard' lamps in Australia. Reading the outcome of the appeal it appears that McDowell could continue to sell Wizard lamps manufactured by Nagel Chase in America but if McDowell continued to manufacture the lamps in Australia, those lamps could not have the Wizard name attributed to them.
We have had this discussion and our reason for listing Wizard in with NC from the US is because some of the lamps are the same and were imported from the US. It may well be that like Gloria they were later made in Aus but the fact that there are the same lamps found in both countries dictates that they are listed together. Nothing to do with the legalities of who owned which bit of the company or even if they were different companies but simply that they are the same lamps. So you will find all Coleman, Gloria and Nagel Chase-Wizard are listed in the US because that is where they originated. ::Neil::
Yes but it was a hard call because it means that some lamps appear to be in the wrong country. In the end we decided that comparison was more important than location. ::Neil::
