Vintage interior decor and lighting

When you are looking for vintage interior decor ideas check out the Old Catalogue section of VintageLights.com. We have a few great catalogs showing original furnishings and paint colors from about 1910 through 1920.

Antique Lighting Fixtures on parade

Well, not an actual parade, but a great weekend coming up Oct. 16 & 17 in Pasadena, Ca for anyone interested in the Craftsman or Arts & Crafts style. It is the annual Craftsman Weekend, sponsored by the Pasadena Historical Society. We have been invited back again to be a vendor at their juried showcase of antique and craftsman dealers. This year it is in a new location: the Pasadena Convention Center. Due to the new location restrictions we only have one day to set up and light our booth full of wonderful antique lighting fixtures. So to make this happen in only one day instead of two, we are already focused on building out the booth, adding new features, testing all the vintage lighting, and touching up the final presentation (and at-show specials).

The show prep is an almost full time job between now and then, but we also have customers new and returning who deserve our undivided attention. So if you notice a longer time between blog entries, or new inventory not showing up as steadily as before, this is the reason.

It may not be a parade but since this is the only show we will be doing this year, it is our time to shine our antique lights and we will be doing it up right.

Come visit us. You will be glad you did.

Listen To Your Eyes. PB

Identification Marks on Antique Lighting Fixtures

Customers are always asking about marks on their vintage lighting fixtures and if we can identify the fixture maker by those marks. We wish it were that easy. Although some makers of antique light fixtures did sign their pieces (actually a signature is a marking incorporated into the casting of a part, not an actual signature) with their company name, like Moe Bridges Milwaukee, Beardslee, or Lincoln, or initials, M.E.P. for Markel Elecrical Products, many did not for one reason or another. A few have patent numbers which can be traced and some just have Pat. Pending. However, most pieces of antique lighting we see today do have some marking on them, mostly just a few numbers or letters. What were these marks for???
It turns out these marks are "casting marks." An antique lighting fixture may have 4 to 8 different pieces which must be identified and put together in a particular order to create the fixture. Each fixture part had its own casting mark so some antique fixtures may have 4 or 5 different marks on them. The casting ID marks are yesterday's parts number. They were usually just for the manufacturer's internal use and were not published or recorded.
Unless there are other identifying marks on the antique lighting fixture it is very difficult to identify the fixture's maker just by the casting marks. We will be describing some of the other ways to identify a maker in blogs to come.

Listen To Your Eyes. PB

Another Challenge of Antique Lighting Fixtures

Of the many challenges of working with vintage lighting fixtures, including finding antique lighting fixtures in the first place, is refinishing them to match the colors, depth, sheen, and the finishing process of the original finish. This is one of the most frustrating parts of restoring vintage fixtures as trial after trial often results in error. There is more than one fixture in the warehouse which has been set aside until an appropriate finish can be duplicate (I won't say it, but some of our antique fixtures have been waiting years for a vintage finish to be duplicated). Now, it is always difficult to tell just what the original antique finish looked like as the effects of smoke, smog, oxidation, waxing, and cleaning almost always alter the antique finish somewhat. Images in old catalogs are not much use either as the photographic and printing processes back then did not accurately reproduce colors. But there are clues which do show what the fixture would have looked like in 1924. The most accurate clue is found where two pieces have come together to cover a small portion of the fixture. As in the case above, another clue was found in the cavity under the socket bowl where any airborne particles landed on the top surface and where it was difficult to reach with wax or cleaner. And a closer look under magnification also revealed marks left from the original vintage finish application.

Taking these clues into account, along with the information we learn from hundreds and hundreds of trial & error experiments allows us to reproduce the above finish, which is an exact match of the original antique finish.

Although it is very frustrating when the failures at duplicating finishes reaches a dead end, when we can combine our experiences to faithfully and accurately produce a finish which mirrors the original, we are proud.

Listen to Your Eyes. PB