I left the studio late the other night. On moon-lit evenings there is no problem in negotiating the fifteen meters walk along the back of the barn to the back door. However this night it was pitch black so I was relying on familiarity to guide my passage. It led me to turn one step to soon and collide with the granite corner. No harm done but thought it about time I add a torch to my shopping list. Just as I did this the following morning I immediately crossed it off. Why was I contemplating buying a battery operated plastic light when I already had a perfectly good lantern.
I came across the lantern some thirty years ago on the west
coast of Ireland, when as an antique dealer I was buying furniture. When I
asked Simon Quilligan how much he wanted for it he looked perplexed. I’d
already spent several thousand pounds with him and a broken box lantern had no
real value. “Sure you can take that as a present” he said and for the next
twenty five years it hung from a wooden peg in the stairwell of my house in
Brittany, complete with candle but never lit. I had repaired the tin funnel and
made a door for the back but this summer I decided it needed a further going
over, so replaced the broken glass and added a reflecting mirror on the inside
of the door. It was packed into the van for my return to Lewis and now, at last
it could be put into service. My perfect pre-electric torch, that has the added
benefit of warming your hands as you carry it.
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