Started in the 1880s the Dressel Railway Lamp Works is most well known for producing railroad lamps, but also produced a number of lanterns under its name. Dressel was bought in the 1920s by the F.H. Lovell Company, which was later bought by Adams and Westlake in the 1960s. With Dressel’s primary focus on the railroad lamp market most of their lanterns were subcontracted to other firms who produced lanterns with the Dressel name. Some of the companies who did subcontract work for Dressel include Dietz and C.T. Ham so Dressel stamped lanterns often are almost identical to Dietz tall-globe or Vesta models, or C.T. Ham models. Dressel did produce a unique design known at the “Heavy-Duty” model, and there are examples of some other Dressel designs that did not seem to catch on because of the rarity in seeing them.

Dressel lanterns vary in value but even examples in excellent condition typically bring less than $100.