Hi all.

I picked up this lubester at a reclaimed wood center in MA. They had 2 of them (identical), so I picked up the cleaner-looking one for a pretty decent price.

From what I have found online (including this amazing website!!), it's likely a Bowser of some kind. It looks like it was originally painted a military green/gray, and the only markings on it are "AWP #2" on 2 sides in old-style stencil. The numbers on top for output amount look to be art deco-inspired or early 1900s.

Any ideas would help! I want to refinish this to look as original as possible.

Thanks!

Don't know a lot about this dispenser but I recommend going back and get the other one at that price.

this is an earlier dispenser (looks to be 1920's) may have had a lamp oil or home oil in it as it looks like a general store dispenser. Maybe a countertop dispenser.

John pretty well nailed it. Like he said some type of oil dispenser. Very similar to the ones shown on page 88 and 89 of my Gas Pump book. All of the tanks shown on these pages were made just like yours, the wood was added to make them look nicer.
This one looks to be bigger than the table top ones in the book, probably used for something the seller sold a lot of. The color green was used on tanks and pumps for oil, red was for gasoline pumps.
This type of tanks was one of DBs favorites, I even sold him one years ago, he really liked the table top ones.
I probably have some literature for it, but I would need to know what size tank it has (how many gallons).

Jack Sim

Thanks for the reply. It would make sense if this was a lamp oil or general store dispenser, as it has Pint units on it instead of quarts. But it does look like (and smells like) there's motor oil in there. They likely repurposed it.

Are dispensers this old pretty rare? I have yet to see anything like it in all the searching I've done. I will definitely see if they still have the other one.

Anything made around 1901-1909 could be considered rare. Rare doesn't mean it commands a high value. Most would add it to their collection, but it is not at the top of their list of things to look for. Check the values Dick put on the ones shown in my book, and this was 7 years ago.

All early oil dispenser such as this measured pints and qts.

Jack

Thanks, Jack.

I actually have no intention of selling it yet. I want to refinish it and add it to my garage. This vintage stuff is awesome to me, the older the better. And the mechanism works perfectly. The inside of the pump valve thanger is pretty well rotted though, so it won't be used for actual dispensing of anything.

I appreciate the input, fellas!

DO NOT REFINISH IT!!!

It's only old once and you can't get the same look again. Leave it as is and enjoy it.

That's only my opinion do what you want with it.

I was actually leaning that way anyway, Oilcanman. I like vintage/antique stuff BECAUSE it looks vintage or antique. This thing is in great shape externally, so I'm going to wipe it down (trying not to remove any more paint) and clean out the inside. There is no way I'd get the color right again or find those stencil patterns anywhere.

Thanks for the nudge!

For measurement purposes (and purely by accident), one of the pics shows a 5qt container of oil near the dispenser. Good enough reference for estimating size? Using old fashioned math and estimating at the size (at work now), it could be about 20 gallons.

Looks like a nice smaller size tank. I would try and get the other as well. I use to have a 16 gallon size and the man I bought it from said he use to sit in front of a store and sell oil off his truck. I sold it many years ago.
At present I have this Bowser from 1908.

WOW! That is an awesome piece! The roll-top is an great feature.

Looking at the pump mechanism on yours, I'm convinced mine is a Bowser as well. One thing I haven't seen on any other lubester I've looked at online is the "sliding" filler cap on mine.

Unfortunately the other one is already gone. Someone else might have recognized the very high nostalgia/price ratio, lol

looks a bit like my Kepferle/Ideal