Americana & Folk Art
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Peggy McClard Antiques Americana & Folk Art |
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No one knows how old Betty lamps are. One of the oldest known
pictures showing a Betty lamp is an engraving of a 16th century pope's
kitchen from a book published by Bartolomeo Scappi, the personal cook
for Pope Pius the Fifth. The Betty lamp represents a great
improvement over the probably earlier pan grease lamp, commonly known as
a Crusie or Phoebe lamp. The name "Betty" may be from the German
and Dutch word besser which means "better"....hence "Betty."
The Crusie consisted of a flat pan with shallow sloping sides and an open wick spout. The Crusie pans dripped the hot grease from the outside of the spout end. The Betty lamp has more upright sides than the Crusie, and includes a wick support attached to the bottom of the lamp which keeps the wick from touching the sides spout end, where the grease generally dripped from the Crusie. The Betty also was closed on top, with a hinged top. The Betty lamp was such an efficient grease lamp that it continued to be used from at least the 16th century until around 1850. The older Betty lamps are either hand-forged and formed iron or cast iron. The font of older lamps are all one piece except for the cover and the wick support. This is a nice 19th century Betty lamp made of rolled tin sheets, cut and soldered together. The top is nicely hinged and the wick channel is made of half-round tin that held the wick far enough from the edges of the spout so that no hot grease dripped out. The wick pick acts as a wonderfully shaped hanging hook. 4" to the top of the lamp, not including the wick pick hanger. 9 1/2" to the top of the hanger.(#3632) $245 |
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