Midnight Aristocrat Yard Sale Find

[ChuckM]

I finally got lucky! 5 minutes from my house I picked up a 52 oz Midnight Aristocrat for $2.00 with a date code of 2000.

I edited the post after Critter pointed out that this is an Aristocrat…originally I said it was a Century. I kept thinking there was something funny about it, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

It isn't super clear… the flow is maybe a tad boring for me.. after after my success with my Century, I am feeling a bit cavalier. It was only $2 afterall all!

[Josh Langley]

Very nice lamp, but just as heads up that's a midnight aristocrat.

[Critter]

Great price on that Aristocrat! Congrats!!!

[ChuckM]

I meant that Josh pointed out it is an Aristocrat. I actually don't think the flow is boring. I am just not loving the classic blue/white. I don't know what it is. I will cycle it a little to see if it clears. I do have a 32 ounce globe that is over-filled with silver wax… My Century GooKit looks great and used about he same amount. I realized that too much wax in a 52 ounce is not the key to success and have used about the same amount I used in 32 ounce globes. Anyway… for a future project perhaps… still… hard to beat $2 for a 52 ounce lamp! So glad I went to the yard sale! I was expecting (from the ad) to find a cheap china lamp or some off-brand… I was hoping for something good, though, and was happy to get this! I would have been happy with a 52 ounce china globe full of opaque crud, just to get a globe to play around!

[LotsofLava]

Yes, the white wax blue liquid combo is nice. Good find!

[ChuckM]

Well now that I know this is an aristocrat can someone tell me whether the globes on aristocrats are interchangeable with centuries? My old century is at work so I can't check. The weird thing is that my old century globe fits nicely on my Mathmos heritage bases (they have a little platform). I just tried the aristocrat globe on the Mathmos base and it is very wobbly!

So this makes me wonder if newer century globes fit on a Mathmos heritage base.

[Brad]

nice find, and nice lamp!

yes - 52oz century and artisocrat globes are interchangeable.

[Josh Langley]

Like Brad just said, any 52oz globe can interchange with the century or other aristocrats. Very nice lamp for 2 bucks, and I feel the blue and white is a bit over used so I'd change colors personally.

[ChuckM]

Yeah, I figured that any 52oz can interchange with Lava Lite lamps... the weird thing is that my 1974 Century globe seems to fit on my 2014 Mathmos Astro. The Astro has a little inner "shelf" that the globe sits on nicely. When I tried the 2000 Aristocrat globe in the Astro base, it is tippy. It doesn't rest on the shelf I guess. There must be a slight difference between 1974 LL 52oz globes... a bit slimmer... not noticeable on a LL base, but with a 2014 Astro base, the difference becomes apparent.

I agree... the white and blue just doesn't float my boat. It is also getting that used up look. Now that I have seen what my 52oz Century looks like with a GooKit (much better than the 32oz GooKits) I can't wait to do it. My biggest struggle is whether to use the Silver Sharpie wax from once of my 32oz globes or start with a new color entirely.... I really like how the light glows through the lava when not too much color is used so I may have answered my own question.

[Brad]

if you decide to gookit this lamp, would you be willing to send me the blue/white wax and liquid?  it is my favorite color combo and i'm sure i could find something for it if you don't plan to use it.

[ChuckM]

Brad, I might be able to do that. We just need to figure out logistics. A mason jar would work for the wax or even a plastic container but the liquid is a pretty large amount. If you had an empty 52oz bottle I could transfer and cap it (I have a bench top capper)

[Brad]

that would work but would have to pay for shipping both ways.  do you drink soda by chance?  2-2 liter bottles would do it.  i will pay shipping.  no rush, just let me know because i have a blue/white century that needs new wax, and yours looks much better than what i have.

[ChuckM]

How old is your blue/white century? Does it have a screw cap or bottle cap? If it was a bottle cap we could just trade globes. Otherwise I could definitely do the 2-liter bottle route. I didn't think of that. Would you prefer I put hot wax in a clean two liter bottle, let it cool then add the liquid or would you rather have the wax in a separate bottle? I would probably use seltzer bottle just to minimize any residual gunk.