Description
I have been unable to get the photos to work, hopefully you can give me some ideas anyway?
The lantern is V shaped on the back with a hanger on the left side (like it would fit into a corner). The top is like a little chimney with a tab that locks the top. This also has a handle attached. The front has a concave with a concave blue glass light on the front. There is a little oil lamp inside that fits into a sliding track so it won't spill. There is a little wheel that turns up the wick.
To hold the top on there is a copper screw that fits into the top.
Re: tung woo copper starboard maritime lantern
A photo would be nice, but with a caviet that I have not seen the piece nor the inside burner and am only going on your description...
It sounds like you have an authentic piece of history. Check out this site to see if the lantern matches: http://orientalartsgroup.com/id7.html
These lantern types are still made today, so you need to look them over very carefully for details and partially hidden markings. Also look for markings on the lens, as well as the lens material. (for example, it should not say corning, as that company wasn't around back then. It would make the lantern either a reproduction, or the lens a replacement. It most likely will be a painted lens (on the inside) to get the blue color, if it is original.
The fact that the lens is BLUE is actually a point in it's favor. A lot of deliberate fakes put a green lens in place because starboard is 'supposed to be green'. This shows their ignorance and helps us spot fakes more easily.
Blue lenses were normally used for a very simple reason. The color of the oil burner flame inside is yellow. Yellow light, passing through a blue lens,comes out green. Its a property of the light and the way our eye balls are built to react to light.
A green lens would do the same thing, but because it is blocking all the light frequencies EXCEPT green (and a yellow source has very little green in it) the resulting intensity of light is much lower. So you get a brighter lantern by converting the greater proportion of yellow light to green rather than by blocking it out.
Hope this helps!
Garry
PS. I should put an exception in about the Green lenses. If the lamp unit is ELECTRICAL, the bulbs used produced a WHITE light (not yellow). So in that situation, Green Lenses were used. But you aren't talking about an electric fixture here.