19 March 2012
A true "lanthorn"
This one was made by a modern tinsmith, but the construction is in the traditional manner, encasing the candle in a metal cylinder, and letting the light out through a window made of animal horn (typically slaughtered cattle, whose horns were hydrated, heated, flattened and sliced). Mica would be a mineral alternative, but this fabrication shows the origin of the "horn" in "lanthorn."
I found this one at the website of the Cooperstown Tinker Shop.
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Iteresting! I never knew that. We are so ignorant of the links to the past....
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