Gas light

Gas light, suitable for inverted mantle lamp. About 1900 with later repairs of about 1920. Brass swan-necked gas bracket, made by Renown, complete with glass shade, made by Veritas, for one mantle. Part of the Bob Gray collection.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, gas lights like this, fitted with a single gas mantle, were useful everyday light sources. Simply made and not elaborate, a light like this would have been used in a modest house or in the less important rooms of a wealthy house. Some fittings like this were converted to electricity from around 1910 whilst others stayed in use until the end of gas lighting in most homes and businesses by the end of the 1930s. Not many survive with the glass shade as these were so easily smashed. The 'Veritas' shade is made from heat-proof borosilicate glass and its gallery (holder) is made from aluminium suggesting that this part of the fitting dates from the end of gas lighting in the 1920s and 30s. The 'Renown' brass swan-neck bracket is probably twenty years older.