Australian Fibre optic lamp?

[Tim Tam]

Hi everybody,

great site, first post here.

I love the Fantasia style fibre optic lamps but alas don't have one yet. While searching I came across this one on Australian ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/RETRO-SATURN-PLANET-CHROME-SPACE-FIBER-OPTIC...

The lamp has labels that say it was manufactured in Australia but I have suspicions it might be a lamp from somewhere else re-wired and re-badged in Oz to suit the local electrical system.

Anyone know this type of lamp?

Cheers,
Tim Tam

[Kris]

Looks like an AU lamp to me. For some reason, fiber optic lamps from the AU always look "clunky". Lol. Not sure if it's the cord/plug that makes it like that or what. Never seen this lamp before.

[Tim Tam]

Thanks for the reply Kris.

I think you are being kind calling it clunky, let's be honest, it is downright ugly. I don't think we can blame the cord/plug either, I think we can blame the designer.

I imagine if you haven't seen the design before then it probably is a local one. Not something we Australians can be proud of unfortunately.

Cheers,
Tim Tam

[Kris]

Lol, you said it - not me :)

There was only 1 good fiber lamp I have seen from the AU. It looked like a torch kinda lamp. It went for a great deal of money as well. The one you linked looks like several I have seen as far as design goes. Not something very pleasing. What are those two nubs on the side? Switches?

[Tim Tam]

Hi Kris,

I am pretty certain the two nubs are push-button switches. I seem to recall similar types on torches (Flashlights) from that era but the ones on the lamp are obviously heavier duty.

Since I may be confined to locally made lamps I hope there were some better looking ones made here. The one that first caught my eye as a 11-12 year old back in the Seventies was possibly a squat matte-black cylinder. It was a long, long time ago and to be honest I was so mesmerized by the beautiful pin-points of coloured light that I didn't take much notice of the base.

Cheers,
Tim Tam

[Kris]

Yeah, not sure how many options you have available over there to be honest. It's probably not many if that. Seems the USA had the most fiber optic lamp options to date. Europe coming in second.

[Jonas Clark-Elliott]

Seems one switch is the main power, and the other switch turns the color wheel motor on and off so you can stop it on a single color - that's a nifty feature. Only other Australian glass-fiber lamp I've seen had a Saturna-ish, UFO-like black-and-chrome base topped by a wide 'plate' and firefly-style fanned spray, and was marked Jamalo Pty., Ltd. The seller claimed to have bought it new in 1979 for approx. $380!! I've also seen a few of the plastic spray ones with multiple fountainlike sprays on looped metal arms coming off a cylindrical base, which are also seen occasionally in France and UK. I'd agree that this one is probably Australian-made - it has a fan, too, how nice!

The coolest French model I've seen used a sphere-type Fantasia style spray coming from a lamp with a domed chrome base and flat, wide top surface (in the center of which mounted the spray) but the "top" surface stood at a 45-degree angle to the table. Another nice one using a firefly-style fanned spray has a short, wide cylindrical brushed-steel base topped by a same-diameter, same-height cylindrical section of crackled, solid amber glass.

Many foreign fiber lamps look kind of clunky. I do admit a fondness for the UK-made ones by Fairland Op-Arts, which were apparently called "Nightflowers", but again they have plastic sprays.

[Tim Tam]

Hello Jonas,

The seller who claimed to have payed $380 for their lamp when it was new wasn't exaggerating.
The lamp that turned me on to fire optics when I was a kid back in the 70's (In Oz) was priced at $400. I desperately wanted my Mum and Dad to get it but even as a youngster I realized I couldn't nag them about it as was just too expensive. $400 was a LOT of money back then and my nagging powers were better used on more achievable goals like Airfix model planes.

Cheers,
Tim Tam