The European variant of the foregoing device was known in Scotland as a ‘cru(i)sie’ (a word related to ‘crucible’, from Latin: ‘crucibulum’). This, in its most elaborate form, comprised of two ‘rowing-boat’ or leaf-shaped pans, one lying within the other, with the inner able to be inclined, by increments, relative to the outer. The fuel was contained within the inner pan, as likewise was the wick which was channelled upwards and forwards by the ‘bow’ shape at the front of the pan. The idea was that, as the oil level in the inner pan was gradually consumed, the pan could be slanted (by steps in a rack, each sequentially tilting it the more) thereby to maintain a sump for the remainder of the oil with which to keep the extremity of the wick immersed. A ‘pickwick’ - i.e. a spatula-like implement for prodding the wick downwards to utilise every last vestige of the fuel - was attached to the main body of the crusie by a chain. The benefit of having the outer pan (an innovation, absent in earlier models) was that wicks sometimes sucked up oil faster than it could be burned and so any surplus - consequently dripping over the sides of the inner pan - would be collected in this lower receptacle, respectively facilitating its retrieval for recycling and preventing its spillage onto the floor.

    Once fabrics became more plentiful and thus - as clothes etc. were done - expendable, wicks might be contrived from twisted rags. However, before that, they were obtained from using the absorbent pith of any rush-like plant in the vicinity. In Scotland, it was traditionally the children of the household who got the job of peeling the hard outside of such rushes to get at this mushy core. Often a thin sliver of the plant’s casing was left along its length to support the fragile innards against breakage but keeping it whole was a pernickety and patience-testing task just the same!

     A common fuel, especially in inland districts, was mutton (or other animal) fat. However, less viscous and hence more efficiently flowing was oil, quite readily available in coastal areas or the Scottish islands by extraction from fish, seals, whales (later), or even certain birds: but, dependent upon the creature used, combustion resulted in a strong acrid, unpleasant smell and pungent, smokey discharge.

     The nature of the design - with oil able to slosh around in the trays - was not conducive to the lamp being carried about and it therefore had a hook by which to hang upon a handy wall. Affluent people possessed candles which had the advantage of being portable and, moreover, gave off brighter illumination but which, during that epoch, were more expensive than the oil which was a free by-product of the community’s fishing and hunting occupation for food. But, whereas candles might, in the grand houses, be used for the gentry family itself, crusies were likely to be found in the domestic quarters, forby byres and other outhouses of the accompanying estate.

     So the crusie was generally an appliance for ancillary purposes and/or for the poor. It could nevertheless be easily manufactured by local blacksmiths, some of whom had a mould within a corner of their anvils for the function of cold-hammering thin sheets of wrought iron into the desired configuration. And there are also instances of such moulds hollowed into the surface of stones (see picture above).

     Although metal crusies would become the norm, some very primitive versions were fashioned from bone, occasionally soapstone or (very infrequently) wood. Most of the extant crusies are totally unembellished yet others show a flair for artistry in decorative backplates. A rather handsome example is the crusie (see pictures above) destined, upon my demise, as an artefact for the collection in the Clan Wardlaw Association centre proposed at Pitreavie Castle, in Fife, Scotland. I inherited it from my mother upon her death in 1984, it being handed down on the distaff side from her great grandmother who had - I was led to believe - acquired it at an auction sale at some big house in the Netherlorn region of Argyll, some time in the nineteenth century.

     Presumably items there were being disposed of as obsolete in such upper-echelon establishments which were probably adopting the new fangled lighting of that era; paraffin lamps! Being curious to find if I might discover more of the lamp’s background, in 2010 I sent pictures of it to the Principal Curator of the Scottish History Department in the National Museums of Scotland in Edinburgh, to which I received the following reply:

      "We have compared the photos of your crusie with those in our own collection (of which we have about 60). While it is similar in general outline to some of ours, there is no identical match. This unfortunately makes it impossible to suggest an origin location based on comparison with our provenanced examples.   As I think I said when we spoke, I am not aware of any serious typological survey having been done on crusies, so I’ve drawn a blank there too. One small positive is that you example is certainly well within the general style and technique of the genre, so I have no doubt that it is genuine and probably dates to the 18th or 19th century. It is difficult to be precise about dating, as they basically did not change over a long period. Most seem to have been hand-made, probably by local smiths, and therefore exhibit lots of individual idiosyncrasies."

     Consequently, although the Wardlaws are an east coast family and this is a west coast crusie, the object would be basically the same from wherever in Scotland (or elsewhere in Europe, for that matter) it came. Although Scottish crusies are comparatively rare, this one - as the aforenoted number in the museum indicates - is far from unique. Its value is intrinsic, as opposed to commercial.

     The crusie (French: ‘creuset’: Dutch ‘kruysel’) was taken by many of the immigrants from Europe into the Americas in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries where the double-bowl kind was termed a ‘phoebe’ lamp (perhaps deriving from French ‘phoibos’: i.e. radiant) - albeit that this name is nowadays applied to an altogether different design.