Lamps Tips
Read these 4 Lamps Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Antique tips and hundreds of other topics.
Chandeliers
Chandeliers made before 1860 have solid arms. After that, chandelier makers began using hollow arms, so that gas could be pumped into them from ducts in the ceiling. To tell whether the shiny teardrops hanging from a chandelier are real crystal or just cut glass, try this test: "Hold one of the teardrops in your hand. If it gets colder as you hold it, you will know it's crystal. Glass will become warmer."
Damage Depreciation
Watch for damage caused when older kerosene or gas lamps were converted to electricity, this decreases their value considerably. Also, note that like furniture, the price of lamps varies greatly depending on the location they are found and sold. Lamps tend to get higher prices in larger cities than in rural areas.
Kerosene Lamps
Kerosene Lamps have been with us for about 150 years, and lamps that used other oils have come out of the dawn of pre-history. Our concern, though, starts in the 1850's when kerosene was found to be a clean burning, inexpensive fuel. With that, the race was on to give Americans stylish lighting.
You can find Kerosene Lamps made out of porcelain, tin, brass, zinc coated brass, pewter, bronze, glass, cut glass, pattern glass, spelter, copper, sterling silver and combinations of all. All of the above lamps came in various shapes, combination of shapes and sizes, from finger lamps to chandeliers. Today you can find just about any kind of antique lighting you need to decorate with and to accent your home.
Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany was a painter, decorator, architect, landscapist, manufacturer, daring designer and master of pageantry. His vast energy, vitality, versatility, abounding curiosity, creative ability and scientific concern brought many beautiful works of art into the American home and many public buildings. These included paintings, tapestries, wall paper, tiles, stain glass windows, vases, lamps and desk accessories. He is best remembered, however, as a highly skillful and original maker of entrancingly beautiful opalescent glass and the inventor of new processes for making and using "art glass" in objects useful in home decoration. After a great deal of research and experimentation he was able to produce an iridescent glass known as "Favrile" and his first glass shades made of this new glass were placed on the market in 1895.
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| Jennifer Mathes, Ph.D. |
