MTFCA Forum

Among the treasures I found at Hershey was the mate to my 1913 Victor “1” cowl lamp. Now I have a matching set. Nope, not so fast! A close inspection revealed the spade mounting brackets were different. I find the details to be interesting and know nobody would ever notice the discrepancy if one used these lamps on a car. We don’t know how many months these lamps were used before the Victor 2’s were introduced, but I’d think it wasn’t too many.

I don’t have one of the small Victor “1” tail lamps, but I do have a generic version without any embossing on the chimney top. Perhaps the Victor 2 lamp set was made so that a more standard looking tail lamp would adorn the 1913 Model T’s.

Rich C.

I1t is quite possible the lamps were made by a different supplier, I have, I believe three 1910,1911 or 1912 left, right and rear brass lamps that all have E&J Detroit Pat Dec 9, 1908 and they are all different in several small ways, the chimneys are different heights and the rolled rim on the faunts are different, however from 5 feet away you can't tell. I suspect different suppliers.

Thanks for posting the variation of the spade mount. The mount on the right appears to be a casting?
The Victor Lamp Company and Corcoran Company were both owned by Thomas Corcoran and some of his brothers. The Victor "1" lamps seem to be a set that Mr. Corcoran could get together quickly to get a part of Ford's Black & Brass business for 1913. I wouldn't be surprised if Victor "1" and "2" were supplied at the same time as the second came on line.
Also, E&J and CLASCO shared same ownership. A short time later (about 1916 I think), Corcoran picked up the John Brown Company too.

Very interesting....I sold a set of 3 Victor #1 lamps to a friend in Oregon last March at Chickasha. They had the cast mounting bracket. You didn’t buy that lamp from a noted brass era collector from OR, did you ?

Keep an eye out for that correct #1 tailamp. They do show up from time to time. I'm happy you found that side light. Very few 1913's have #1's on them. Several years ago I saw a photo of a 1913 with #1's on it. It's the only one I've ever seen. Oh, I failed to mention, Victor made a square #1 tailamp too, which I believe is harder to find than the round one.