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

Antique Lighting Fixture tip # 6

I had just finished rewiring a nice little 2 bulb vintage bathroom fixture, turned it on and ... nothing. Odd, I thought that both bulbs would be bad, so I changed the bulbs to ones I knew were good. Turned it on and... nothing. OK, out with the continuity tester. Both sockets and switch tested in good working order. Sometimes switches have intermittent problems so I changed the switch, replaced the light bulbs which were good, turned it on and ... nothing.

That's when that little vintage light bulb went off in my head.

I remembered talking to an old timer about restoring antique lighting when he mentioned he had just fixed a fixture brought to him that was not working. The problem was so simple I had forgotten about it until now.

People have a tendency to screw the light bulb down TOO TIGHT. The metal contact point which the light bulb hits at the bottom of the socket is a thin piece of bendable copper. Repeatedly screwing the bulb down as tight as you can bends this contact point down. Then when you replace a light bulb with one which may not be as pointed at the bottom as the burned out one you are replacing, the bottom of the new light bulb doesn't hit the contact point on the socket. So you think it may be a bad light bulb and you try another light bulb which does work, after screwing it down really tight. So you throw away the new light bulb which did not work when in fact the light bulb was perfectly good.

So, when putting light bulbs in vintage lighting fixtures (or any fixtures for that matter) screw them in to where they just light up, and then no more than a quarter turn.

This will prevent the bottom contact from being deformed to where it will no longer make contact with the bottom of the light bulb.

The images show a cut-away view of inside an antique socket with two different light bulbs having very different bottom profiles.





Listen to Your Eyes. PB

How to tell if an antique shade is really old?

A customer recently asked me a question I remember asking a mentor many years ago: "How can you tell if a shade for an antique fixture is really old or a reproduction?" My mentor's first response was, "You can just tell."  Frustrated by his answer, I asked him to elaborate on the signs which indicate a shade is vintage and old. I thought I would share what was shared with me back then. The following is more a guideline than a rule for vintage and antique shades.

First, look at the top opening of the shade. Vintage shades were hand blown into a mold and resulted with the top edge of the shade nicely rolled and smooth. Reproduction shades have a flat ground top which is much faster and easier to finish. This is about 95 % accurate. Some vintage shades are very thin and this indicator is not there.

Second, look just below the top rolled edge of the opening. Antique shades will have a thin ring which is rough, where the hand blown glass was broken out of the mold. If these first two are on shade it is a good bet it is antique and vintage.

Third, there will be small seams in the glass where the mold is clamped together. Vintage shades will have 2 to 4 "mold marks" where reproduction shades will usually have only 2.

Fourth, vintage and antique shade often have slight imperfections such as air bubbles, insignificant discoloration, minor unevenness in the finish and thickness of the glass, and trivial deformities. For collectors these imperfections are looked for as they indicate the human touch imparted to the vintage shade.

In addition, vintage shades have a look and feel which reproduction shades just do not have. This is what my mentor was referring to when he said "You can just tell." And after handling thousands of shades over the years, both vintage and reproduction, I too can "just tell."

My customer was spared the frustration of "You can just tell" and was was given the rest of this short lesson on how to tell if an antique shade is really old.

Listen to Your Eyes. PB

New vintage lights inventory posted to flickr, twitter, and facebook

Starting this month all new inventory being put up on our website will also be placed on facebook, flickr, and twitter. Please bookmark, add as favorite, or join your favorite way to stay in touch and be one of the first to view the new inventory. Yesterday we just had one disappointed customer because the fixture she was interested in was sold yesterday morning. Hate it when that happens!

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50643466@N05/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/vintagelightscom/110983695607214

Twitter: http://twitter.com/lightsvintage

Listen to Your Eyes. PB