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Some vintage lamps can fetch huge money

1/6/2012 9:05:35 AM by Administrator Account

Today's Antiques by Scott Davis

Let’s start out with a question that you all likely believe you know the answer to: Who invented the light bulb and when was it invented? If your answer was Thomas Edison around 1880, then you’re off by a country mile. Actually, the first light bulb was invented in England in 1809, long before Edison’s birth, and Edison actually purchased the patent for the bulb that he later improved to be commercially viable. It then took another 25 years until the light bulb made it into portable lamps for residential use.

The first electric table and floor lamps were mostly oil or kerosene lamps that owners had converted by their electricians. It wasn’t until the second decade of the 20th century that manufacturers began designing and making fixtures specifically intended for electric operation. Thus, the oldest electric lamps will usually be art nouveau in style, with their distinctive leaded or molded glass shades and elaborate bases with classical design motifs. Because electric lamps didn’t require complicated burners, fonts and hurricane shades, the sky was the limit material- and design-wise, so as time passed lamps took on many different forms.

As for value, converted lamps tend to be worth roughly what their unconverted equivalents are worth. There are exceptions of course, but most of those lamps are declining in desirability and consequently value. Most are worth $300 or less. The first lamps designed for electric operation tend to be worth the most. There’s Tiffany of course at the top of the heap, and the very best of those lamps can be worth more than $1 million dollars. Look for signatures such as Pairpoint, Handel, Jefferson, Pittsburgh, Miller, Bradley & Hubbard and Moe Bridges because many of those lamps can be worth $1,000 or more.

Lamps made from the 1920s onward were usually made by drilling holes for sockets and wires into vases, ginger jars and figurines. Those lamps are usually only worth a fraction of what the base would have been worth had it not been drilled – even if the drilling was factory done.
Beginning in the 1950s, creative designers started producing innovative modernistic fixtures that celebrate the beauty of well-controlled light. Today, the best of those modern designs can bring as much if not more than any of their older counterparts.

Scott Davis operates Rhode Island Antiques Mall, 345 Fountain St., Pawtucket. Contact him at (401) 475-3400 or Scott@riantiquesmall.com.

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