Using Search
Using the Search function is easy yet powerful. There are some simple guidelines to follow:
- The search term(s) used can describe any distinguishing feature of the lamp. It can be a colour, a feature of the lamp such as an object or adjective (eg: flower, girl, stove, squirrel, post, drunk, etc), writing permanently marked on the lamp such as "Tennessee", the colour of a prominent feature such as a flower(s), or any other easily identifiable descriptive term. Multiple tags have been recorded for each lamp.
- Use just ONE(1) search term at a time on its own. For example, "yellow flower" will give zero results, but "yellow" and then "flower" will give results where both of the search terms are matched.
- Do not use adjectives such as "light" or "dark" with colours, just use the basic colour, eg: "brown", "blue", etc. Try different variations such as "cream" and "tan", or "purple" and "pink". Stick with the most common colours, not those such as mauve, lilac, peach, apricot, umber, etc.
- Do not use the colour of a feature which seems obvious. For example "holly" is always red so there is no need to search for "red", however a "flower" can be many colours so then use the colour to refine the search.
- Do not use writing on lamps such as an importer's sticker, eg: "Lipper" of Lipper & Mann, since many of those stickers have been removed, faded, or fallen off.
- Use the singular only, no plurals, eg: use "flower" not "flowers".
- Do not use shortened terms like "xmas", use the full term ie: "christmas".
- For unique or rare search terms such as "noel", the one search will often be adequate. If there are too many search results then use a second, third or even fourth term to narrow down the results. Simply continue with each search term in succession. For example for a white lamp with yellow flowers, the term "white" will give too many results, the second term "flower" will reduce the field, and then the term "yellow" will likely narrow it down to a handful of potential lamps.
- Different variations in spelling have mostly/all been covered, eg: "pot", "belly" and "potbelly" for pot-belly stoves.
- Using the height (all heights have been rounded to the nearest 5mm) may not be a good method to find a lamp since manufacturing tolerances can vary or the flue may not be the original.
- A search can be reset (to stop the new search term being ANDed with previous terms) by clicking on any other page and then starting a new search.
- Try going to the Gallery And News page and scroll down to the Popular Tags section to see the entire list of search terms (tags) entered for the collection. (Note that some of those tags will not be searchable until all data is transferred to the public album.)