This is a student desk lamp from the 1930s. It was originally a kerosene lamp that has been converted to electricity and works perfectly. This design was a common style for these types of lamps. Unlike common kerosene lamps, these didn’t have the reservoir as the base. Student desk lamps typically had 2 arms on each side with the brass reservoir containing the oil in a cylinder in the middle. The second type of construction was one arm with the reservoir next to it as a second arm. Student desk lamps were mostly popular in the 1860s until the early 20th century.
Though Edison patented his incandescent light bulb in 1880, it took a while for most of the world to convert to electricity. Kerosene was still used well into the 1940s.
It is not to be understood that these lamps were only for students. The term was coined by Americans simply because the construction of the lamps offered practical sources of light for reading and writing. This particular one is from the 30s when hobnail milk glass became popular again.
Daniela Addamo 