Vintage lanterns

[terry mabs]

Can you help me identify an auto that this was intended for? 

[Walt G]

Hard to help you - need the height of the lamp, the width of the slot that the mounting area slides into as there were a wide variety offered by DIetz and other lamp manufacturers. Is the lamp 8 inches tall, 9 inches tall? 7 1.2 inches tall what is the size of the door? 5 x 5, 4 3/4 by 4 3/4 ?

[1912Staver]

There is a good chance they are not specific to any make or model. Lots of cars in the 1906 - 1910 or so time frame were sold without any lighting. If you decided at some point you wanted lights they were available from many retailers. The auto supply mail order outfits had many types in their catalogs. Basic and cheap right on up to elaborate and expensive.  

[20 T Speedster]

You just don't see a lot of square Dietz lanterns. I believe Mercer used them, so they are sought after.

[1912Staver]

That's worth researching. But I somehow doubt there are many Mercer's that actually need side lamps. I quick google search shows a Mercer with these lights. So I would expect they are more valuable than I would have thought. Quite a few higher quality cars had lamps that were either engraved by the lamp maker with the make of the car , or had a soldered on badge with the cars name. So they make a nice display item even if not actually mounted on the correct car. But these only have the Dietz name, interesting but probably not as much as lamps with Mercer name tags would be { assuming they ever existed }.

Edited February 24 by 1912Staver (see edit history)