Restoration Hardware has a halogen Edison bulb that might work--no plastic.

Here is a link that might be useful: halogen bulb

Restoration Hardware has a halogen Edison bulb that might work--no plastic.

Here is a link that might be useful: halogen bulb

I bought some bulbs from 1000bulbs.com. We used some antique globe bulbs on our pendant lights but they are not bright enough to be useful. They are incandescent though.

You've illustrated two different bases, so, which is it?

halogens put out a LOT of heat.

are you going to see the plastic of the cfl?

I'd go clf over halogen,, , but then I'm in a cooling climate.

The crystal is what we bought, snoony.

I'm not keen on halogen, but that's the only flavor the crystal bulbs come in (I looked online too). And the light is too bright to look at directly.

Yes, we'll see the whole bulb, plastic base and all, or bright crystal and all.

So it seems like my options so far are:
1. too-bright crystal halogen
2. non-authentic (ugly?) LED or CFL white globes
3. incandescent white globes (cheap, but energy hogs)
4. halogen non-globe bulb from RH (cheap, not the ideal shape)

5. incandescent gold bulbs from Rejuvenation (expensive and energy hogs, but perhaps the most "authentic". But only 25W, and I need >100w for this light).

Must-haves:
Bright enough
Authentic enough

Nice to haves:
energy-efficient
reasonably priced

I'm all for energy conservation, but you're taking about one fixture that is going to be on how much per day? And during heating season, the heat that an incandescent puts out means a slightly smaller amount of heat the furnace has to put out. I suggest you do the calculations and see if the use of incandescents is really as big and expensive a waste as you are assuming.

I suspect this fixture might have had lamps with shades of some kind attached.

You should avoid box stores and online suppliers. Go to a professional electrical supply store and/or an antique lighting store (possibly a repair/restoration shop) and show them the photo.

seems to me there wold be some type of shade also.
and its a beautiful fixture.

I've been in houses where the ho's were
planning on another supply grill for the
hvac system because kitchen was too hot.
it was the halogens, by simply replacing the
bulbs...

granted we all make sacrifices for what we
are true to. I have cfl's everywhere in my house
because I leave lights on all the time, so it
pays for me, everyone is different as are their
lighting needs.

I do hope you'll include a pic of the whole
fixture & include your bulb choice.

best of luck.

Many early fixtures proudly exhibit the bare bulbs; having electric lights was a big deal, and you wanted to show them off. A fixture like this would very likely not have had shades. It also would not have had the equivalent of 100 W bulbs. Pre-1900 Edison bulbs are probably closer to a 15 W equivalent. I suspect any 100 W equivalent bulb is going to be way too bright. Globe lights are a common solution, though they aren't remotely historically appropriate. Better to use lower wattage bulbs in your antique fixture and supplement the room light from other sources.

One like this might not be too bad, Feit also makes a 25 w equivalent all glass globe.

Here is a link that might be useful: LED globe

you can get vintage light bulbs. They are usually low wattage because they were originally low wattage back then. Here is one example. Just search on "vintage light bulbs" and several come up.

Here is a link that might be useful: one example of vintage lightbulbs

Barn Light Electric also does reproduction light bulbs:

Here is a link that might be useful: bulbs at barn light electric

This post was edited by writersblock on Mon, Nov 10, 14 at 10:21

Actually globe lights ARE period appropriate. See below:

My concern about the "vintage lights" that come up in the search is that they're clear glass, which would give me the same problem as the crystal ones that I've got now.

And I don't think I could fathom 25w bulbs and their combined 100w for our whole dining room. Too dim.

Per the photo above, I'd be ok with white globe lights, which I can get in incandescent. I suppose that might be what we'll need to end up with.

I used soft white globe lights (modern, not reproduction) in my vintage light fixtures, exposed as yours are. They're 60W, which is actually too bright, I should have used 40W. If you have spare bulbs at home, you might want to try different wattages before buying anything. Four 100w bulbs in your fixture seems like it would be much too bright.

You can buy a sort of beaded hairnet that goes over the globes from one of the online vintage lighting stores. I'll see if I can find it, but no promises.