Table Lamp Shapes (Update 2)

Returning again to the subject of Crown Ducal table lamps, here we have two discoveries, both without conventional pattern numbers but both are documented in the sample book held at the Stoke-on-Trent library.

Lamp pattern S.17 on shape 401

The first is a variation of Charlotte Rhead's chain patterns 4100 and 4298.

Pattern S.17 on table lamp shape 401

Detail at top of lamp

It is documented in the sample book as S.17 where the text reads:

S.17

Blue matt

Pattern as S.15

Coloured Silver & Goods Blue

Silver Bands

White Background

There are some rough pencil sketches and these are annotated where the silver lines are to go. The entry is written in pencil but there is the number 401 added in black ink, 401 is the shape number of this lamp. The information for S.15 is a sketch of a shape 208 vase with the text “Off White Matt Glaze Tubed in Dark Brown Lustred in Orange & Black Orange Bands” Everything about the sketch and the description tallies with what collectors know as pattern 4100, Orange Chain. 

This information in itself is quite interesting as I believe S.15 and 4100 are one of the few pattern pairings that link the sample book with the pattern book. I have recognised a few others, particularly tableware patterns where pattern numbers have been added to the sample book. If sufficient tie points could be found between the two books it could become a resource to help with design dating. There are fewer entries in the sample book and probably not in continuous use, but it does cover designs dated from 1935 until 1942.

Back to S.15, it must also help determine the date for the introduction of the 208 shape, which would be around the time of this entry, very early in 1935. I do not believe it can be earlier than 1935 because no example of a shape 208 vase has yet been seen with a period 1 backstamp and in a previous post I estimated the the period 1-2 boundary to be the end of 1934.

The original Crown Ducal label is still inside the lamp

Astonishingly the original factory hand written label is still inside the lamp with the inscription “Lamp 401 S17”, and in the typical habit of decorators labelling errors the facsimile signature of Fanny Morrey and the pattern mark of S.18.

A version of Fanny Morreys mark and an incorrect tube-lined S.18

Lamp pattern S.36 on shape “Bamboo” or E6

This lamp base was recently auctioned with online publicity. Again, it fits the sample book description perfectly.

Pattern S.36 on table lamp shape "Bamboo"or E6

The sample book entry reads:

S.36

New shape Bamboo

Fawn glaze. Full Strength

Mottled White

Orange Lustre Bamboo

2 green on leaves

Black centres

Fortunately there is a drawing of the “Bamboo” lamp shape in the pattern book for pattern 4133, (which has the same shape but is decorated differently), so we can be confident that the example in the picture does correspond to the S.36 description. The shape name in that document is referred to as E6. The design age of the Bamboo lamp, and 4133 will be around the same time as the S15, S17 and 4100 items above, that is early 1935.