Is this a genuine 60s lamp?

[Purity!]

I've been looking at this auction - not bad if it's the real thing but needs some work if that's meant to be lava in there - is this a real 60s lamp? It looks like the ones that the US people call a 'capri' but i'm not sure.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=2...

I'm trying to work out too if the dudes put a coloured bulb in it, there seems to be amber light coming out the bottom where it's sat on the serrated surface?

[Purity!]

jeez john, i think people do appreciate your site (we love it here), maybe it just doesn't look that way sometimes.

i quite liked the semi naked picture too :D

[Jonas Clark-Elliott]

John, we appreciate your information. You were, back in the day, the first Crestworth fan on OG, and the original expert. I defer to your knowledge.

All I know about these is from John and from photos on eBay, but there seem to be three base styles and three cap styles. The bases are a cylinder with a conical bottom (as shown) an Astrobaby-like base, and a convex-curved upper cone with a concave or flared bottom cone. Caps are the style shown, a cone, and a flat-topped cylinder. There may be others I haven't yet seen... and, being in the States, I've never examined one in person.

I believe, John, that you posted photos of a box and a brochure, as well as an old advert from a catalogue? I've seen one on eBay with purple lava - if that is authentic, then they were the first manufacturer to do purple lava, predating Lava-Simplex by decades! If it's true that these have liquid-when-cold lava, that might explain why most I've seen are cloudy. There are glitter ones, too, I believe.

John... Any other details? Someone also posted photos of some restored ones, I'll try to find that shot; they certainly did look spiffy.

[Purity!]

cheers for the advice guys.

i might be able to get it quite cheap as it's collection only, depends how the auction goes and wether i can motivate myself to make a trip to Doncaster on public transport.

[Jonas Clark-Elliott]

John (yes, I'm asking you specifically) did you not, at some point, post photos of a Sata-Lite box? I HAVE them, I'm just not certain if they were yours. The paperwork calls the lava "oil" and mentions the buyer can mix and match colors to spec: oil in red, orange, yellow or purple; liquid in red, blue, green or yellow. I've seen a number of base variants and three caps, all copper, and the glitter ones I've seen (I'm told "Sata-Glitterlite") were orange or amber liquid with tinsel-like shreds of glitter.

NO lava lamps were on the market in '64, as far as I know everrything began in '65 with the Astro.

But don't mind John's comments - he's actually our resident expert. All I know about these lamps, besides what I see in eBay photos, I got from him.