250.            $100

Whale oil lamp-clock, ca. 1750.  Would you have known what this was if I hadn’t told you?  I didn’t know until my consignor told me.  It’s quite ingenious.  You fill the blown glass bulb with whale oil (it unscrews from the stand for filling), and then light the oil at the opening at the top of the stand.  There may have been a wick involved.  As the oil burns the liquid level falls and the markings on the side of the pewter holder count off the hours.  It is marked ‘V’ at the top of the vial (for 5 pm) and ‘VII’ at the bottom when empty, 7 am.  And since it provides its own light you can easily read it at your bedstand and know how much time you have left before it’s time to get up and head to the fields.  Whale oil was used because it burns very cleanly.  You can find these occasionally for sale, from $140–$400, but whale oil has been outlawed world-wide.  You can find artificial or synthetic “whale” oil for sale, as it can be obtained and purified from a variety of plant and animal sources (for you scientists and dieticians, it is almost entirely unsaturated triglycerides).  This lamp was not tested.  $100–$400.