Astro Consort

[fog rider]

How ironic. I was just thinking about how rare the Astro Consort is when, lo and behold, one pops up on ol' e-Bay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=260217686954...

[Manix5]

I noticed it also, It's not as nice as yours, but I'm bidding on it. The description says it has a small dent and you can see it in the photos. I wonder if there would be any way to open the bottom and pound the dent out without making it look worse than it does now?

[Jonas Clark-Elliott]

Nice! Whoever gets this is lucky. I have only ever seen four of these, including this one - Fog Rider's (if you search the photos section and look *very* carefully, you can see it in its former home, with a green-liquid bottle), this one, and two red/clear ones that went on eBay a number of years ago as a pair. Someone on OG, or at least a former user - I can't remember who, honestly - has those. And as I've examined one of these, I'd say that, no, you'd probably be better off just leaving that dent and accepting it as a mark of use. Only one I've seen in green/blue, this one, and the lava seems to work great!

[fog rider]

That went fairly cheap. The Astro Consort is one of the rarest lava lamps. Congrats to the buyer.

[fog rider]

There are 2 more out there that I know about. A fellow collector has them - I can't remember who it is.

I think that Jonas has some factory info on them. I'm guessing they came out in the late 60's?

Congrats on a rare find at a fair price. I expected it to sell for more.

[dave p.]

Glad the seller didn't try to tighten the cap on it like they did my Capri. It's a shame because it had such nice flow. They still shipped it with a cork in it. Nice lamp, I paid about that for my Capri. Congrats. Dave

[fog rider]

She's a nice one! The globe looks nice and clear. I'm curious to see if there's a date tag under the cap....

Let it run a bunch of times, as old Consort globe wax tends to seperate out over time. If you end up with the classic "wax ball at the top" syndrome (common on old Consorts) you might want to try removing a wee bit of liquid from the globe (save it in case you need to use it to fine tune the globe later) and replace it with a bit of distilled water. This thins out the liquid and allows the wax to sink to the bottom of the globe during operation.

The "astral bands" clean up nicely, don't they? They're solid metal, rather than plated metal. Try not to handle the metal bands too much once they're back on the lamp. They're raw metal, and the oils from your skin will tarnish them.

Like you say, you should be able to massage the dent out of the base. The metal on this lamp is quite soft.

Cheers.

[fog rider]

Niiiice!

The date tag should be up inside the cap. If you look up through the glass you can usually see it (unless it's been removed in the past).

[Jonas Clark-Elliott]

Are Consorts ever dated? I haven't seen one with a date sticker.

Dave P., I have an extra Consort cap, if you need one. Needs refinishing.

[fog rider]

I have a rare polished silver Consort with a black plastic base. There's a sticker under the cap that reads Aug. 71.

I can't remember if any of my other Consorts have date tags or not.