Date | Manufacturer | Notes | Outside of Box | Inside of Box |
ca 1929 | Real Lite |
This outfit specifies the use of Japanese lamps, and is equipped with colorful "snow tip" lamps that are painted in two different colors, fading into each other. |
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ca 1929 | Reliance |
The string is an early example of Bakelite sockets. The earliest Bakelite sockets were mottled with red and green, while later examples are usually solid brown or black in color. |
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ca 1929 | ClemCo |
This is ClemCo's earliest C-9 outdoor outfit, and is a difficult box to find. The light string sold with this set has a brand name of Meteor, and is a high quality Underwriter's listed cord which was equipped with the more expensive General Electric Mazda inside colored lamps and clips for positioning the lights. |
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ca 1929 | NOMA |
This outfit by Novolite is actually a NOMA set. It is unclear why NOMA chose such a similar name as their own to market this less-expensive set, which is usually found equipped with Japanese lamps. NOMA usually chose a very dissimilar name (like Glolite, for example) when selling cheaper outfits. Adding a bit to the mystery, this particular box art was created solely to market the seven light outdoor set, which is unusual. More often, companies would merely adapt existing box art to accommodate the larger sets, saving on production costs. |
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ca 1929 | Thomas Imports |
This outfit from Thomas Imports is quite typical of the late 1920s imported outfits. The lighting string is American made, while the C-6 miniature base lamps are of Japanese origin. Many varieties of sets like these were sold over the years, as a less expensive alternative to outfits totally of American manufacture. |
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ca 1929 | Thomas Imports |
Produced by Thomas Imports, or Timco, this outdoor set always came from the factory with imported C-9 intermediate base lamps. The light string on this outfit is lacquered cotton, the earliest form of weatherproofing. As the string aged, the lacquer would harden and become stiff, making the set unusable. Storage in extremely warm places such as attics or garages added to the stiffening problem, and later outdoor sets would use rubber coated wires to alleviate this problem. This set remains quite flexible due to the fact that it was stored indoors and away from heat and humidity. |
In 1929, NOMA issued this box art for the first time, exclusively used to promote their new outside light strings. For some reason, the printing quality for this particular box design was not very good, and it is most often found with rather severely offset and misaligned printing. In addition to the printing alignment problem, the box seems to be more susceptible to fading than most, resulting in weak colors. This is a book style box, and the string contained within uses the then new C-9 outdoor swirl lamps, with General Electric's newly patented high quality inside coloring process, insuring that the paint could not scratch off. |
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