From Primitive Privy Peg-Lamps to Louis Tiffany!
Collecting Antique Lighting – History Illuminated
Collecting antique lighting is a fascinating pursuit, with many layers to it. I would venture to say that there are very few people who collect “antique lighting,” without being very specific about what it is they collect.
For me, as an antique bottle digger and scuba diver, I’ve been amazed at some of the old lighting pieces that I’ve come across by chance. Old whale oil or kerosene lamp fixtures became obsolete once houses were electrified, sometime around the turn of the century in most cases. And occasionally (lucky for me), the lamp got tossed into an old trash dump, or into a river with other trash, and managed to survive.
When I refer to being specific about what you collect, when you collect “lighting,” let me give you one great example. There are people whose total obsession in life is assembling 100% original and 100% complete lighting fixtures. Do you see on the chart below, those two small items called “burner collar” and “wick raiser knob?” Do you have an old antique whale oil lamp with a beautiful base and “font” (body, I call it) and shade etc., but either of those two small connecter parts are replacement parts, or reproductions and not original? Well, those missing or mismatched pieces can take hundreds of dollars in value off of high end antique lamps.
So the obsessive types (said with loving admiration) will be the ones at outdoor antique shows on their hands and knees digging through boxes of miscellaneous “parts” (hopefully lamp parts), in search of one little brass piece that for them, may wind up being “worth” $500.00 if it completes a lamp.
“Collecting” lighting is tricky because you can’t really buy 50 different lamps, and put them in a display case. So often, like at an estate auction, a large chandelier or beautiful large floor lamp will come up for sale, and the owner can’t flip it unless he knows he has a buyer lined up who needs one to actually use for light or for display in their home. It’s hard to store a chandelier. But like a white elephant, if you desperately want or need one, you’d give the sun and the moon for one. So, it’s a calculated risk.
The only real “collectible” antique lights, are mini lamps or finger lamps, which can certainly be collected and displayed on shelving and glass cabinets. The earliest examples of these can bring high prices, and are fascinating to collect!
Now, if you have very deep pockets, and hang out around the big New York or Paris auction houses, there is only one name at the top of the “lighting” list in terms of value. And that name is Louis Tiffany. There are volumes of reference materials on Tiffany, so I won’t give a crash course here. But what is important to know is that the “high end” of an authentic “Tiffany” lamp shade or lamp base is up in another stratosphere. So it is wise to learn the basics. If you come across a piece that has some provenance, and you have a feeling it could be a genuine Tiffany piece, it is worth whatever time, effort, and money it takes to get it right.
The markings and signatures used in Tiffany workmanship are very precise and make it possible to date pieces to a particular artist and studio, as well as identify the date the piece was made. Tiffany made some of the most beautiful and opulent man made items ever created and is certainly in a class of its own. I’ll keep digging and scuba diving, but I think my chances of coming up with anything that came out of a Tiffany Studio are nil. But who knows.
Bram Hepburn collects 19th-century New England bottles and glass, having spent the last 30 years digging and diving for bottles in New England and upstate New York. He has just founded an estate liquidation company and auction house, Hepburn and Co. Antiques in Eliot, Maine.
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