“Crusie” Lamp on Stand
Wrought Iron
4 wick
16″ H, 5.5″ Diameter – base
18th Century
A type of lamp called Crusie had been in use for many years prior to the landing of the Pilgrims. The crusies that were used in colonial New England were similar in the Scottish highlands The word “crusie” is of Scottish origin and seems to have been derived from “cruse”, a vessel for oil. …some lamps had multiple channels to accept more than one wick to increase the lighting….Improvements to the crusie lamps spawned Betty lamps which were probably the most widely used early colonial lighting device in Colonial America. There is some conjecture as to the origin of the word “betty.” It has been suggested that the origin of the name most likely comes from the German word “besser” which means better since the betty lamp were considered far better than the slut lamps or Phoebe lamps. It has also been suggested that the word “betty” came from the “bette” which is the old German form of the word bed. A betty lamp could be used to light the way to the bed. The English use would most likely have pronounced the word “Betty”. It was the most popular type of colonial lighting invention of the closed type of lamp in 1820. (Excerpted from the website ColonialSense. com)
Price: $375.
