Japanese Lantern Christmas Figural Light Bulbs (C9)

We continuing to sort through a large collection of Christmas light bulbs from the estate of a long time collector.  We'll be posting many unusual ones over the coming weeks.

This group of bulbs was probably manufactured as a set.  They are all the largest size bulb, (that we know of), the type known as C9.  As you can see, five of the six continue to work, but we can't promise for how long they will continue to do so.  We hate to seperate them after all these years, so we are including the non-working bulb, as well.   It is the one pictured on the far left of the first group shot.   It rattles a bit, but the glass isn't broken, and will display well still.

The bulbs are made of clear glass that is cold painted in soft colors of red, white, green, purple, black and brown.  The paint is rubbed off here and there, but overall in nice shape.  The glass is lightly ribbed to resemble the bamboo frame of a Japanese paper lantern.  Each lantern  is painted with a slightly different oriental  floral motif, including iris, maple leaves, grasses and wisteria.

The marking is a little hard to make out, but we believe it says "20V JAPAN."  The three larger lanterns measure about 4 3/4 inches long, including  the bulb base by about 2 1/2 inches wide.   The rounded lanterns are about 3 1/2 inches long, including the base by 2 1/2 inches wide.