Dating an early crestworth lava lamp

[Edward Norton]

I picked up my first "what im hoping to be early" lava lamp at auction last week. My main interests are in vintage electronics but i've always fancied owing a nice 60s lava lamp! Anyhow my husband works at a local auction and told me about a lamp they had in at his work and wondered if i would be interested in it. When I saw it I had a feeling it could be a nice early Crestworth lamp so put a absent bid on it and won it.

Im pretty sure its an early one but would love to hear your opinions on it as im am no expert and im sure there are many different kinds out there. I have made a short youtube video of the lamp and any feed back would be much appreciated. I hope to upload a video of the lamp in action tomorrow.

here is the video link of the lamp.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUT753tCzCI

Many thanks 

Eddy  

[andy ross]

Hi Eddy,

Your video is entitled "Crestworth Mk0?" and I agree - a great find 

It's probably the earliest lava lamp - 1963? - hand-spun in copper, for Patent Office registration

That's why the cap is so hard to get off, I reckon - the stuff inside isn't nice, and they're showing it's safely locked away.

I have one of these (there aren't many known) and my fill was shot, so I got the cap off to re-fill it; it can be done, but maybe yours will not need it, await the video. One thing - it's not good to agitate the bottle when it's warm.

[Edward Norton]

Many thanks for your reply Andy ross

The amazing thing is the stuff inside is perfect, its not cloudy or anything its just as id expect one to look, here is the video of it working https://youtu.be/KbWU99Y3G3Y 

I've been very careful to not mess about with it too much as I don't want to damage the liquid, only handling it when its cool and keeping the lamp out of direct sunlight 

[andy ross]

There are between five and ten of these lamps known, the last time I did a count

Only one other has its original lave working like yours!

Cor! Wow! etc....

[Edward Norton]

I do know a little about its history, the chap who brought it in for auction is a house clearance specialist and when it arrived at the auction house it was very carefully packed and appeared to have been packed away a long time ago, at least 30 years or more, that might explain why its in very good condition. The house it came out of belonged to a member of the Guinness family "beer people" so the original owners would have had the means to purchase the lamp from new..

andy ross said:

There are between five and ten of these lamps known, the last time I did a count

Only one other has its original lave working like yours!

Cor! Wow! etc....

[andy ross]

The Patent versions are unlikely to have been offered for sale

They were made to get Patent Office approval, that's all, before mass production

It's possible one or two spares slipped into the early (Mk1) batches sold, I suppose...

It could have been bought as an investment, but a more likely answer in my book is that the Guinness family backed Edward Craven Walker in his venture and were given one as a thank you, but that is a complete guess.

Whatever, you have a superb piece of lava lamp history