My wife and I purchased our first Aladdin lamp over fifty years ago. We were living in a small town in Iowa where the winter storms could be fierce and they often left us without electrical power. Due to that fact, it wasn't long before we went searching for an alternate source of light and heat for those occasions. We found our first Aladdin lamp in a small local antique shop. The lady that ran the shop happened to be quite an Aladdin admirer and was more than happy to demonstrate the lamp for us. It was an Alacite Tall Lincoln Drape and it was so drastically different from the flat wick lamps we were used to seeing that it didn't take much of a sales pitch at all to get us to purchase it. It was a case of love at first sight. We soon learned that Alacite glass was an exclusive of the Aladdin Mantle Lamp Company. The glass literally resembles ivory. We also learned that our Alacite glass Tall Lincoln Drape lamp was the Aladdin Mantle Lamp Company's best-selling lamp. In fact, it became the best selling kerosene lamp in America during its sales period.
Shortly after purchasing our very first lamp, my wife found a book titled "Aladdin, the Magic Name in Lamps" by J.W. Courter. It was full of information on Aladdin lamps, and we were fascinated by the different colors and styles of them. We began to look in local antique shops just to see if we could find any of the other Aladdin lamps shown in the book. In short order we purchased a model 12 brass table lamp, and an amber Corinthian, to go with our Alacite Tall Lincoln Drape. We also managed to squeeze in a vacation to Nashville, Tennessee where we visited Tom Teeter's "American Lamp" shop and purchased a new amber Tall Lincoln Drape -- complete with shade.
We used our Aladdin lamps many times to help light, as well as heat, our home in power outages. We began to look forward to being without electricity! We even loaned a pair of lamps to a farm couple that were without electricity for more than two weeks after a particularly bad winter blizzard.
As life would have it, we had to take time out from our collecting to pursue our careers and to raise two children. After a couple of moves, our lamps were relegated to boxes tucked away in a closet, and stayed there for many long years. Finally, with the children grown, and more time on our hands, we set about re-arranging our home. In doing so we rediscovered our small collection of Aladdin lamps. Seeing them again rekindled our interest and admiration of them. We began to frequent local antique shops in our search, then expanded it to include shops all over the state of Iowa. Thoroughly enjoying our search, we finally expanded it to include not just the neighboring states, but to include many other states as well, We even managed to include another nation when we explored antique shops in Canada. Over the next few years we spent hundreds of hours and drove thousands of miles. We managed to add well over a hundred lamps to our collection. The search became a never ending quest and we loved every minute of it. The collection is still growing and the numbers have grown closer to three hundred lamps at present. And along the way, we managed to collect a number of other products produced by the Aladdin Mantle Lamp Company, or Aladdin Industries.
So that's our story and I hope this web page helps some of you enjoy the lamps as much as we do. I'll try to provide information that will be of benefit to you. I don't profess to be an expert on Aladdin lamps by any means-- but I will share what I have learned. I will also express my opinions and you may take them for what they're worth. They are expressed with the best of intentions and based on my own personal experience.
I would like to thank all those who have given us a helping hand in our search, and hope in some tiny way I can help someone else in theirs. Good luck along the way and I hope someday we will meet in our journeys! -- Darrell
We didn’t start out to be Aladdin lamp collectors. We bought our first one out of a need for a light source during power failures. We discovered the lamp not only provided good light, but also provided heat, which was a welcomed bonus during the cold months and Iowa winter storms.
That first lamp just interested us, and we began to look for more information about it. In doing so, we first discovered the book “Aladdin the Magic Name in Lamps” written by J.W. Courter (Bill). His book was a fountain of information on the history of the Aladdin Mantle Lamp Company and all the products they produced. The book continued to peak our interest and started a lifelong treasure hunt for the items contained within it. That treasure hunt began in 1974, and still continues. From a lamp, to a book, to a collectors organization called the “Aladdin Knights”, the search has taken us to many states and even another country. Nobody starts out to be a collector, but becoming one can change your life.
My love of antiques helped to kindle my love of restoration. For me, there is nothing I love more than the never ending hunt for them. I have always enjoyed attending live auctions where I could examine the antiques before bidding, and we have driven hundreds of miles to attend some of those auctions. Sadly, the days of Covid put an end to most of the live auctions. They have been replaced by "online only" substitutes that took away the adventurous travel, and the ability to inspect an item before bidding on it. Also, in association with my collecting, I developed a talent for disassembling and cleaning the Aladdin lamps we acquired. Not one of them could go into our collection until I had disassembled, cleaned, and restored it to original condition. I spent many days watching tv with a lamp on the table cleaning it. I have done so many of them that having a lamp or a burner in my hands has just become almost second nature to me. I take pride in the reputation I have gained for my ability to do so.
Our 1920’s farm home has been restored and furnished to be period correct, so our lamps fit into it perfectly.
