Update 1-25-08: This title of this article should probably be changed to The Frankart Lady.
I have come to the conclusion that the female silhouette depicted in this lamp bears an uncanny resemblance to the nude art made famous during the 1920s/1930s by an artist named
Arthur Von Frankenberg. This connection was made while leafing through some old lighting literature and discovering a picture of a Frankart styled electric lamp. Online research led to the addition of an excellent site given at the bottom of this page which provides more history about Frankart. It still remains a mystery if this neon lamp has any direct connection with the Frankart company, but the time frame does fit.
Pictured below is a bizarre neon
lamp I came across. For lack of a better name, I
refer to this bulb as the Flame
Lady. The "clickable" pictures
below are linked to larger images. The Flame Lady
bulb is substantially larger than the GE AR-1 as
shown on the left (Fig.1) and is permanently cemented
to the red art deco-ish base (Fig.3). Remnants of
white paint remain on the outer glass suggesting
the paint was used as a decorative effect, probably
to hide the stem inside the lamp. This was common
practice on many Aerolux and Birdseye glow lamps.
A hole and grommet in the base (Fig.2) provides an
exit for the power cord (cord removed in these pictures)
suggesting this may have been intended for a lamp
or night light at one time. The filament depicts
a lady holding her arms out to her side (Fig.5) with
what appears to be a flame (or spade) shaped electrode
behind her. Unfortunately, this bulb's vacuum has
been compromised, allowing impurities to enter the
bulb. A simulation of what the bulb may have looked
like when operating is shown at the end of this article.
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
)
