I love Lightolier. They made gorgeous, impressively high-quality fixtures. You can thus imagine my great excitement when I found a matching 1920s Spanish-Revival set online! However, I hesitated, for I knew the set originally had glass shades. And the missing shades will NEVER be found (I state that based on experience). There was one chandelier…
…and four sconces. I learned long ago that an odd mix of sconces does not matter to most buyers. Once the set arrived, I knew I had to do something about the ugliness of the exposed sockets. This is what actually compelled me to buy the set. I felt a I had to do what I could to restore beauty to this forlorn set.
And the results were worth it! Oh my!
I replaced the exposed sockets with candle-style versions. This is something I hardly ever do. I love keeping things original, but without the possibility of finding ten original shades (ten!), I knew I could not keep exposed sockets which were never meant to be exposed. I also know that Lightolier did, in fact, offer candle versions of these fixtures, so, I had precedent!
The fixtures are from Lightolier’s Valley Forge series, and abound with gorgeous, richly molded details. The fixtures are cast-iron, and impressibly made. All the new wiring is cloth-covered. Nice.
When first offered, the fixtures were impressively expensive. The chandelier was a whopping $70, and this 2-bulb sconce was $27. I know, you laugh, but you could buy a lovely 5-bulb ceiling fixture from the Virden Company, for example, for $20.
Gorgeous!
My online vintage lighting store.