Worth a trip?

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On a visit to the Indonesian Island Lombok Bert Tressel was impressed by the local transport of horse-drawn carts called cidomo (pronounced as ‘tsjidomo’). But it was not the carts that that took Bert’s fancy… it was the very prewar looking side lamps (click photo for detail). Could these lamps be the real thing? We don’t know ourselves, so we asked Ken and Trish Jonathan of Veteran Auto Lamps in New-Zealand for an expert opinion. They told us: “If there are a lot of these lamps, we doubt they are original. They are horse drawn carriage lanterns, from the horse drawn era and not auto lamps. The long stork at the bottom is for putting a candle in. They have convex lenses in both the front and the side. From memory, the lamps made in Pakistan (repros usually used for house lamps) didn't have this type of glass. They may be original - who knows. If there was only one pair, we suggest they are original. But if there are a lot of them, someone has been making repros.” So we still don’t know. Are these lamps worth a trip to Lombok? You decide. (RB)

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