Description:
Pewter (britannia) oil lamp stamped: "CAPEN & MOLINEUX N.Y." Ephraim Capen was a member of Brook Farm, a short-lived cooperative community of transcendentalists in West Roxbury, Mass., active from 1841 to 1847. Apart from agriculture, a number of trades were practiced, including the production of pewter lamps and teapots. Capen, who joined in 1844, was the only member to register as a pewterer; he probably produced the pewterware marked "Brook Farm" (see HD 2001.22). After leaving the community in 1847, he was in partnership with George Molineux at 132 William St. in New York City from 1848-1854, where they specialized in lamps. The manufacture of oil lamps in America, which began in the 1820's, reached its peak in the 1840s and 1850s; they were made in a variety of shapes, and had burners with either one or two wicks for whale oil or "burning fluid." From originally burning lard, fish, and whale oils, the burning fluids for oil lamps later became petroleum (found in 1814, dug from wells), camphene, and kerosene.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+0182 |
