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| I don't know if this should go in the lighting forum instead. It looked like most of that was about new lighting.
Anyway, I've looked online for years to find anything about the lights in my house. House built in 1940 and just wondering if these lights are original to the house or not. And if they're worth anything.
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| Wow. My guess would be that they are original to the house. I don't know what they are worth, but we had our original lights (1913) restored by a real old lighting aficionado (he had tons of old light fixtures in sheds all over his property and provided period light fixtures to studios for movies!). I'll look for his card. Maybe you can e-mail him photos and he could tell you more about them. BTW, we found out about him from an antique dealer, so you might check for an antique lighting restorer in your area too. I think your light fixtures are very cool. |
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| Thanks! They are pretty cool. The hanging one could use to be restored. It has yellow paint (it's metal) and it's chipping. The sconces are on either side of the fireplace. I have another one upstairs in a "sewing room," but it doesn't have the glass shade. That would be great if you find that man's info! Thanks! |
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| Nice! We have some original fixtures in our house, but some PO decided to take the shades with them...so we're bare bulbin' it for now! A great resource for shades is Rejuvination. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Rejuvenation shades
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| OK, I found his card. His name is Michael Dalio and his company is Light Years Antiques and Resorations. I've linked to his homepage below; it has all his contact information. I'd suggest e-mailing him your pictures to see what he knows. And, he did a very high quality restoration job on our light fixtures.
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Here is a link that might be useful: Light Years website
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| Thanks!!! That is a really neat fixture! |
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| For historic lamp/lighting info and restoration: If you are near St. Paul, MN - John's Antiques on W. 7th St. Don't know if this helps, but all 3 know their stuff and do repairs. |
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| I'm in OH, so not near any of those places. But I could see if they have email addresses. Thank you! |
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| Those are gorgeous fixtures. Although I'm not an expert, to me they look about right for your house's period (meaning they look like the fixtures I've seen in several other houses of similar period). For goodness sake, keep them and restore them! By the 1940s, lighting designers had figured out how to use indirect lighting properly. Besides looking right and good for your house, they'll light your rooms much more evenly than the cranky, shadowy recessed cans that keep infesting houses all across this land. |
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| I would totally keep those lights--especially the sconces have classic late 30's early 40's detailing--if you keep your eyes open, this milled design: llll....llll....llll (ignore the dots and pretend the l's are lines!) repeats itself everywhere, from the fronts of radios to the backs of chairs. You could look for some pre-war furniture with that motif to compliment the sconces in that room. One of the reasons that the chandelier looks like a UFO is the 1937 world's fair. A lot of stuff in the late 30's and 40's just went totally spacy and mod...it's really amazing what they saw come out of the fair. I can't tell (I have an older house with 4 lights like kim's and some other gems) but maybe you could get a ceiling bulb shade (looks like a glass tray with a hole in the middle to put on the one that you're missing in the upstairs room? If it has a threaded rod that you can run the shade up, just a regular shade (one that usually is there alone on the ceiling) might work--and they can be had for less than a dollar at a thrift store... @ Ashley--I know that Rejuvenation has nice shades...but they break the bank for me. If you have 2 1/4 fitters, some of the big box stores have decent clear shades for $5 or less (I can't stand bare bulbs) and also you can find real antique shades on e-bay for less than $10 each (although you MUST get insurance--I was just sent a set of glass shards. |
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