Topic: Hayward Brothers & Eckstein pavement lights catalogue, ca 1900

[Frank]

A Dutch company reproduces them, a friend asked for advice on some shades and when I saw them recognised instantly. But then when I looked close they were not right. The fittings were also modern, took some hunting but with some clues from the fitting I found the maker, they sell at 400 to 500 euros a piece so no threat to 2nd market. I have some catalogues of the originals too.

Good job on yours Ian. From another fan! Pity most are lost.

[Adam]

For many years a significant part of Davidson's output was Holophane stuff.  It varied, but at a wild guess, during "my" time it might have amounted to 15-20% of total output.  Three compositions purely for them.

I know I have mentioned this before, but one of the first things I noticed at Davidsons was that there were two brass plates on the front door.  One of course was Davidsons but the other was Holophane.  I was curious but I never did get a sensible answer as to the reason for the latter one.  All the time I knew Holophane they were, as far as I knew, simply customers.  What had been going on in the past goodness knows.

Adam D.

[Frank]

Holophane were originally a company but got absorbed in various ways in various countries, GEC in UK. Thereafter lots of offshoots with licences, for manufacture, distribution and some other odd things - making it almost impossible to make a lot of sense of.

Thanks for the mention of Davidsons brass plate. Adds another link in the web.

Today there are various Holophane companies but their link to the original is tenuous to say the least - just a case of a branding that got well known. They were (are) usually a boro-silicate glass formulation trademarked as Endural ( or something like that).