Crestworth Ltd of Poole. Inventors of the "Astro" Lamp. Products in the 1970s.
1970s Crestworth Ltd. Product lineup in detail:
Astro Range: Favoured for its Charm: The Original Astro: Rose/Ruby, Yellow-Green/Amber, Blue/Topaz
Traditional Beauty: Astro Lantern.
Simple Elegance: "Astro" "Mini": Rose/Ruby, Yellow-Green/Amber, Blue/Topaz. Please see images below for "Astro" "Mini" Lamp and packaging.
The Astro Mini is a very sleak design and unlike the Astro has a faster warmup time due to the fact that there is less wax and liquid that needs to be warmed up. The Astro Mini was packaged in the iconic packaging that showed on the left the descriptive text and on the right a diagram of the Astro Mini with red wax and clear fluid. The illustration is iconic, just like the product which relaunched in the 1990s as the Astrobaby product. Please see below for more packaging shots. Thank you for the images below.
Distinctively Scandinavian: Astro Nordic: Rose/Ruby, Yellow-Green/Amber, Blue/Topaz. The images below show a selection of Crestworth lamps. The Nordic design was extremely elegant, housing the light bulb and the fitting in a sleek cone which in turn is placed on a cone that elevates the lamp.
Working from left to right: In the images below, the left image shows a copper Astro Nordic Design, and the third lamp in the row with a green glitterlite bottle shows the silver Astro Nordic Enclosure. In the right image you can see a pair of beautiful Astro Nordics. Nordics use the same size bottle as Mathmos Jets and Crestworth Noridc Deluxe Lamps and Crestworth Telstar lamps. Please see the size comparision of the base of the Telstar in comparision to the base to the Astro Nordic. The Astro Nordic also featured in Copper which is not pictured below.
Astro Nordics require a 40 watt bulb to operate lava. They are seen closed at the base, often with green felt and are extremely well produced. They feature a cap which is somtimes adhered onto the bottle. If your Astro Nordic is found cloudy, then do not fear, modern day Mathmos Jet bottles which can be found cheaply on ebay can simply fit into the the Astro Nordic.
The Crestworth Telstar. Early Two Part Design.
The Crestworth Telstar was highly successful in export markets, and was produced with Lava, Slow moving Glitter Glitterlite and Fast Moving Living Jewel Glitter. It was also designed as an entry level product, therefore this product was designed to be as cost effective to produce as possible. The images below show an early design of the Crestworth Telstar that features an open base with a two part base construction. The base has a copper shaped piece that fits into it and then holds the bottle into the base. The lamp is left open at the base. The following example was seen on ebay. Thank you kindly to Anne for the images below.
The image below shows another example of the two part base design. Thank you to Steve, a regular contributor to the site for the images below. This example also shows the earth wire of the early Telstar models. Crestworth Telstar UK lamps also take regular style non-screw fit household bulbs. The open two part design was discontinued for an all in 1 base design which was neater as the cables were arranged in a more orderly fashion and had less production parts. This base design also feels very light weight.
The Crestworth Telstar. Later Design.
Most people know the Telstar as the Mathmos rocket shaped lamp, however the Telstar is actually also a Crestworth design. Later Crestworth Telstars feature an all-in-one metal base unlike earlier versions that feature the base constructed from two parts which slot into each other. Later designs of the Crestworth Telstar are commonly seen, unlike early 2 part designs. The telstar also formed the design for the the first generation of table lamp which was very similar to the Crestworth Telstar except that it had a shade placed on it. The Crestworth Telstar shares the same bottle as the Astro Nordic.
Telstars followed the classic nordic cone based lamp in the early 70s, the brochure says "this range of lamps has been added to our catalogue for the first time and have been very successful in our export markets." The Telstar also is the only Crestworth lamp to take a standard ordinary household bulb. Below: Please see a great example of slow-moving glitter (Glitterlite) in a Crestworth Telstar. Thank you to Jerome for the images below.
The Sparkling Crestworth Living Jewel.
The ever popular sparkling: Living Jewel. (Using the Astro Nordic Deluxe Base) Colours: Red, Blue, Yellow, Green.
The bases of the bottles are often seen painted using heat resistant paint. Examples shown below with the Astro Nordic de-luxe Base. Living Jewel is a solvent glitter style lamp that has fast moving large square glitter pieces. When the lamp is turned off and is cold, the glitter flakes float to the top of the lamp and rest at the top. Please note that the lamp on the left in the left image below, is a pre-production prototype. It is also shorter in design, this was never released to the mainstream public. Thank you kindly to Grant from oozinggoo for the images below.
Colours that were in production: Green, Blue, Red, Yellow. (As marked on the side of the packaging box) .
The Nordic de-luxe style Lamps.
Nordic de-luxe lamps are commonly known as jet lamps this came out in the mid 70s and were produced in 3 different types:
1. Nordic de-luxe glitterlite edition. 2. Nordic de-luxe bubble (lava type) 3. Nordic de-luxe living jewel (fast moving glitter/ solvent based). In the left image, the lamp on the left is shorter and is a prototype version of this lamp design. It has a different kind of plastic base part. Thank you to Grant for the images below.
The ever popular Glitterlite: Colours: Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire (Night Sky), Amber (Autumn Leaves). (Using the Astro Nordic Base/ Telstar (flared) Base). Furthermore. Two table lamp editions were produced of the Glitterlite.
Wall Mounted Crestworth Glitterlite Edition.
The Wall Lamp de-luxe, like the 2 table lamps is a super rare item it features 2 switch system on back part of the lamp which gives you the option of just lighting the back part of the lamp as room light or just the lava/glitter bottle part or both. The wall mounted Crestworth product is one of the most elusive Crestworth pieces to find and is absolutely stunning.
Available in copper or silver version. I have only seen 3 examples all being copper.
Please see the following images below:
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Special Gallery: Crestworth Galaxy Photo Montage.
Special Gallery: Crestworth Phantom Lite.
Special Gallery: Mathmos Initial Modern Range.
Special Gallery: The Fabulously Beautiful Mathmos Lunar.