Being a Coleman collector I see other collectors trying to find their birthday lantern. For those of you not too familiar with Colemans, most of their lanterns and a month and year of manufacture on the tank. I was trying to find Canadian Coleman birthday lanterns with the dates my parents were born in the early 1930s but I've been having no luck so far. I'm from Newfoundland originally. When my parents were born Newfoundland was a British colony. So I really should be looking for British lanterns made in February 1932 and June 1934 in instead of Colemans from those dates. So that bring me to a couple of question. Were there any British lanterns made that early? And are they stamped with the year and month of manufacture like Colemans are? Thanks.
Yes, there are British lanterns which were made that early and earlier, Tilley started to make pressure lamps in 1920, but they did not start to date their products until the Autumn of 1956. Kitson and Blanchard lamps are even earlier, but if I recall correctly they were not date stamped.
I don't know of any common British lamps that are dated before the 1950s. As Jeff says there were lots made by several companies. The only ones ever dated might be Blanchard or Barnard which sometimes have a date stamp on the burner cowling but these are rare and expensive lamps and not all were dated. They cover the period but I suspect your chances of finding a date match are near zero. Mind you in the early 1930s you are in the region of pretty hard to find Coleman as well. Possible though as there were quite a variety of models and plenty were sold so they are out there to be found. ::Neil::
@newfie Coleman established a Canadian-based company in large part to take advantage of preferential tariff arrangements among Commonwealth countries. Therefore there a Canadian Coleman would indeed be appropriate if you can find one. Tony
Coleman LTD, Toronto, Canada was established, I believe around 1920, so you should be able to find a nice Coleman 220/228B lantern with the dates you're looking for.
Canada continued with the 327 and 427 long after Wichita ceased production. Both were in catalogues to at least 1939 and L427K in 1942. I think we know of an L427K dated 1943. You need to examine any and all of these later Quick-Lites from Canada because there is no marking to distinguish a gasoline Quick-Lite from the Canadian Kero lanterns. The only visible difference is the upper part of the air intake tubes will have two small dimples at the back which are how the inner restrictor tube was fixed in place. What I don't know is when the gasoline true Quick-Lites ended but I suspect around the mid 1930s. ::Neil::
