For sale is an antique G. BARTHEL BLOW TORCH from Dresden, Germany. This large hand held gas or kerosene blowtorch is in excellent condition. The top shield features shows the Company’s logo: crossed swords and the initials GB inside an oval. The black knob is embossed with “Barthel” text and and the company’s logo. The overall height of the torch is 12 3/4 inches tall and about 12 inches wide (handle tip to flame spout). The reservoir has a 4 3/4 inches diameter. A first rate collectible tool.
In the early 1900s, Gustav Barthel manufactured lamps and stoves in Dresden, Germany. The blowtorch for sale is believed to date to the 1930s or 1940s. A blowtorch from Dresden seems ironic given Dresden’s total destruction by fire bombing by the UK and US bombers in 1945 during WWII. The punishing, three-day Allied bombing attack on Dresden in the final months of World War II became among the most controversial Allied actions of the war. The 800-bomber raid dropped some 2,700 tons of explosives and incendiaries and decimated the German city. Less than three months later, and eight days after Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker, the German High Command signed the unconditional surrender of all German forces.
Antique blowtorches used liquid fueled carried in a reservoir attached to the lamp and pressurized by a hand pump. Fuel torches were available in a vast range of sizes. The term “blowtorch” applies to the smaller and lower temperature range. The blowtorch business remained strong through the Second World War but declined during the 1950s due to the introduction of propane blowtorches coupled with the increase use of plastic water pipes over metal pipes. By 1970, gasoline and kerosene torches were no longer in use.
